The Brooklyn Nets are wrapping up the first year of their rebuild. Their 2013 trade with the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett and Paul Piece never delivered the results the Nets had hoped for, with just one playoff series win. Now the Nets are faced with rebuilding without the likely presence of one of their own first round draft picks until 2019. The Celtics own the Nets' picks in 2016 and 2018 and have the right to swap with the Nets in 2017. 

Without the necessary infusion of young talent, most teams would struggle through rebuilding. Fortunately for Brooklyn, they have two nice pieces to build around in Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young. Both Lopez and Young signed long-term deals last summer knowing the Nets faced the prospects of starting over. After a couple of seasons marred by injury, Lopez has been relatively healthy for two straight years. He’s regained the full-time starting center role and has enjoyed arguably the best season of his career. Young has also played very well. He’s had an efficient season and is rebounding better than he ever has before.

Beyond Lopez and Young, the picture is bleak. Identifying the Nets' third best asset is a little difficult. At the start of the year, it would have been Jarrett Jack. Jack will be 33 years old and coming off a torn ACL at the start of next season. That puts his status with the team highly in doubt. His $6.3 million dollar salary will become fully guaranteed on 6/30/16. If Brooklyn chooses to waive Jack, the cap charge will be just $500,000. Age, injury and the opportunity to save $5.8 million in cap room has probably sealed Jack’s future with the Nets.

Bojan Bogdanovic has had a breakout season of sorts. With a slight uptick in starts and minutes, Bogdanovic has seen his counting stats increase across the board. His shooting percentages remain in line with those of his rookie year. The biggest improvement has been with his defense. He’s a keeper as a starter or reserve going forward.

After Bogdanovic, Brooklyn’s next best asset is clearly Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. An ankle injury knocked Hollis-Jefferson out for most of his rookie campaign. Prior to the injury, he’d showed an ability to defend both wing spots and a better than advertised offensive game. Considering he’s locked into a cheap Rookie Scale contract, he’s a big part of the Nets’ future.

The Nets will also bring back Chris McCullough, who missed most of his rookie season while recovering from a knee injury suffered in his last year at Syracuse, and Sean Kilpatrick, a D-League find who parlayed his late season call-up into a fully guaranteed contract for next year.

Heading into last offseason capped out, Brooklyn didn’t make any big free agent signings. The Nets instead smartly structured deals to several lower tier free agents. Each of these players (Wayne Ellington, Shane Larkin and Thomas Robinson) will likely opt out and take another run at free agency this summer. Ellington has done what he’s always done and that is provide three-point shooting off the bench. Larkin has been fine as a backup PG and that is probably his career niche going forward. Robinson has never lived up to his draft status and is likely to be an end of the bench big going forward. Donald Sloan joins this group as a free agent. He’s been steady, but unspectacular, as the primary starting PG since Jack went down. The final UFA is Sergey Karasev. He's barely played for most of the year and has disappointed since coming to Brooklyn.

All of the above players seem likely to move on. If they are back, it will be for minimum or just above contracts. The Nets aren’t in a position to overpay for any of them, nor do they need to.

On the RFA side, Markel Brown and Willie Reed have both flashed at points. Brooklyn will probably extend the Qualifying Offer to both of them, and that is probably the best deal either player can expect to get. They are fine as third string options, as the talent level around them improves.

With players locked in at the C, PF, wing spots and ample cap space, you can expect the Nets to be very active this offseason. While the picks they owe Boston are a sunk cost, there is also little incentive for Brooklyn to not try and get back in the playoffs as soon as possible. They’ll look for upgrades at every spot except for C and possibly PF. If Hollis-Jefferson and Bogdanovic are pushed to the bench behind better options, the team will be that much better for it. 

Much like their counterparts in Phoenix, Brooklyn has to hire a coach before they do anything else. Considering they have no reason to engage in a long rebuild, the team could have a leg up on hiring an established coach. Sean Marks will want someone he can work with for a long time, and would love to recreate the environment he came from in San Antonio, where the coach and GM are always on the same page and share the same vision. Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Scott Brooks could all make sense for the Nets to take the franchise forward.

The second priority this summer is to get a starting caliber PG. Logical targets will include Mike Conley Jr. (the marquee FA at the position), Rajon Rondo and Ty Lawson. That is assuming the latter two players have their heads on straight and are ready to play. If the Nets want to dabble in the RFA market Jordan Clarkson or Matthew Dellavedova could both see offers, if it is believed they are ready to run their own teams. One option, assuming he opts out of his deal, is Jeremy Lin. He’s already thrived in the New York market once. He’s also put together a nice season in Charlotte and likely looking to cash in this summer.

On the wing, adding a scorer to help Lopez and Young is only behind finding a PG. The Nets would love to get in on Kevin Durant or Nic Batum, but those players are likely looking to join situations where contention is closer. But the next tier down in both the UFA and RFA market is where Brooklyn will do some shopping. Harrison Barnes, Evan Fournier, Bradley Beal, Evan Turner, Courtney Lee and Eric Gordon will all interest the Nets as upgrades over Hollis-Jefferson or Bogdanovic.

At first glance, the Nets look remarkably similar to their Atlantic Division brethren to the south, Philadelphia, heading into the summer. Both teams have promising pieces in the frontcourt, interesting options on the wing, and a big hole at the point. Where Brooklyn has an advantage is that they are going to try and win right away. And Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young are proven pieces you can build a playoff team around.

The best thing the Nets did last summer was to not sabotage the long term future by signing bad contracts. No picks and bad contracts would have been a disaster. This summer the Nets will look to make a splash with a good coach and some nice free agent additions. The desire to get back into contention as quick as possible makes Brooklyn one of the more interesting teams to watch this offseason.

Offseason Details

Guaranteed Contracts (6): Bojan Bogdanovic, Ronda Hollis-Jefferson, Sean Kilpatrick, Brook Lopez, Chris McCullough, Thaddeus Young

Partial/Non-Guaranteed Contracts (1): Jarrett Jack

Potential Free Agents (7): Markel Brown, Wayne Ellington, Sergey Karasev, Shane Larkin, Willie Reed, Thomas Robinson, Donald Sloan

“Dead” Money on Cap (2): $323,599 (Andrea Bargnani), $5,474,787 (Deron Williams)

First Round Draft Picks: None

Maximum Cap Space: $39,055,930

Projected Cap Space: $31,896,013