Last year’s trade deadline was perhaps the craziest ever with the Brooklyn Nets detonating what was left of their super team, the Lakers saving their season by bringing in some real role players and most importantly of all the Nuggets got 2 second round picks for Bones Hyland.
This year the Nets are currently poised to be the back to back MVPs of the trade deadline with a bad record and a roster full of players on reasonable contracts that could potentially help contending teams fill out their rosters ahead of a playoff push. But will the Nets front office have the stomach to blow up their team for a second year in a row or will they play it safe? In the hopes that they make the right choice I wrote down all the players who could potentially be dealt at this deadline.
The Nets are in one of the weirdest situations for a team I have ever seen. They don’t have their own picks, they do have some potentially very valuable picks from the Suns, Mavs and Sixers. They have a roster made up entirely out of role players to the point where it feels like if they were to acquire a star like Donovan Mitchell maybe they could take off but at the same time the roster is so flawed that I’m not sure that there is anyone truly worth building around or making untouchable so I pretty much have their whole rotation on the trade block.
Mikal Bridges
I think at this point it is clear that Mikal Bridges is overtasked as a number 1 option. I think it is cool that he got the opportunity to spread his massive wingspan and see what he’s got but now we have almost an entire season sample size of Mikal as the #1 and it seems like that is a recipe for a sub .500 record. However Mikal is an incredible role player he is a great point of attack defender and now that he has gotten a chance to get a bunch of reps as a ball handler that he never would have gotten on Phoenix his offensive game is much improved.
The biggest obstacle for him getting traded is the fact that he is so good and is on such a good contract that the Nets asking price will be sky high. Seriously, I don’t know if a non all star has ever been more valuable in the trade market. And most of the good teams have sent their picks out so will anyone have the package the Nets are looking for and will they be willing to send that package to Brooklyn for Mikal Bridges and if Mikal Bridges is this good why should the Nets trade him?
Well the answer to why they should trade him I think lies in the example of the Toronto Raptors who had wings like OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam and every year there was talk of Masai demanding massive haul for either of them until he waited until they were both expiring and had to trade them for a lot less than he could’ve gotten if he had traded them at their peak value and the Raptors didn’t do anything competitively in those last few year of the Siakam OG era to make the fact they didn’t cash out on those guys feel worth it. If the Nets don’t trade Bridges this year they could probably still get really good value for him next year but if they continue to hold onto him his value will start to decline as he enters his thirties and gets to the end of his contract.
So I’m not saying they have to trade him but I do think that if they traded him for 2 first round picks and a younger player I don’t think they would regret it but I think their asking price is going to be similar to 3 or 4 first round picks and I don’t know if anyone pays that price this year. If someone offers the Nets that or more they should absolutely jump all over that.
As far his fit on a contender I think he would fit great on a team where he could play an Andrew Wiggins on the 2022 Warriors role or like a forward version of what Jrue Holiday gave the Bucks in 2021 where his main focus is defending but he also can have big offensive games if the game calls for it. I guess this is a long way of saying that if he was able to return to his role from the 2021 Suns he could do that even better now. Realistically however I don’t think Mikal is super interested in going back to being a role player and it also seems like the teams most interested in him like the Rockets are looking to make him one of the 2 best players on the team so honestly he’s kind of a trickier fit than I thought he would be.
Nic Claxton
I think Claxton could provide really good backup center minutes for a contender. Almost all the best teams in the league have powerful big men and if you want to slow down a Jokic or a Giannis or an Embiid you are going to need several big bodies to throw at them. Also backup center is a weakness for a lot of teams the Nuggets for example are rolling out Deandre Jordan at the backup 5 (Jordan was waived by the Pistons not long ago) and just to continue using Denver as an example when your backup center is a liability it makes it really hard to form an effective second unit around him and usually result in massive scoring swings when your starting center sits.
Claxton would be an upgrade at backup center for the following teams:
Denver
OKC
The Clippers
Sacramento
Phoenix
Dallas
New Orleans
The Lakers
New York
Indiana
Miami
As far as will the Nets trade Claxton it is possible they don’t because he is young enough at 24 that he could still be in his prime when it is time for the Nets to be good again but I think this year they could get pretty good value for him and as I just outlined I think that his role on a championship team is probably a backup big so I think that if a team offers you a decent pick and young player if I were the Nets I’d feel good about moving on from Claxton.
Spencer Dinwiddie
Dinwiddie has been pretty poor this year for the Nets so teams will be looking to buy low on him and hope that when he joins a winning situation he is rejuvenated and starts playing more like how he played his good year in Dallas.
I think the role Dinwiddie played in Dallas is his ideal role. A third guard who can shift between point guard and shooting guard, run the second unit offense, and spot up off the ball but I wouldn’t blame any team who would look at what Dinwiddie has done so far and thinking that is not a player we are interested in adding to our team but as the trade deadline gets closer and closer and teams watch as the guys they were hoping to trade for come off the board maybe someone coughs up a couple second round picks to add Dinwiddie to their bench.
Dorian Finney-Smith
Besides Bridges, DFS is probably the most coveted player on this Nets roster. He is a perfect 3 and D player that literally every contending team is looking to add. Similar to Bridges he is on an incredible contract and the question will be will the Nets drive such a hard bargain that he ends up not getting traded. I already talked about why I think it makes sense for the Nets to trade Bridges and I feel the same about DFS except even stronger.
DFS is 30 and the Nets should be under no illusion that he will be a part of the next great Nets team. The reports have been that the Nets are asking for 2 first round picks for Finney-Smith and I think that is exactly what the Nets should be putting out but I think when push comes to shove they should be willing to settle for 1 great pick. I think DFS for a few years out unprotected first would get the deal done.
Cam Johnson
I feel like a broken record at this point but Johnson is a good role player on a good contract. 20+ Million a year for 4 years may feel like a lot but with the salary cap continuing to increase this deal will look better and better as it gets to its end. He is a capital 3 3&D player the defense is alright he competes and on a better team he might compete harder than what we’ve seen this year on the Nets but he’s not the athlete that Finney-Smith and Bridges are.
Even though I think his contract is palatable I think it might be a little trickier to move him simply because most of the good teams are close to their ceiling as far as what they can spend and would have trouble coming up with the money to send back without hurting their team and I think his fit is a little trickier than Finney-Smith’s so here are the teams I think would be a good fit for Johnson.
New York
Cleveland
Miami
OKC
Dallas
Royce O’Neale
This trade deadline Royce is like Dorian Finney Smith for teams that can’t afford Dorian Finney Smith. Any good team could find some bench minutes for Royce and he should only cost a couple second round picks.
Even if the Nets are being delusional about who they are right now there is truly no reason not to trade Royce O’Neale to whatever team wants to give you something for him.
Ben Simmons
Ben Simmons has been the least valuable player in the NBA for several years now but as his horrible contract comes to an end and he returns from his most recent injury hiatus it is possible that a good team that has a few toxic contracts of their own to offload could look to add him as a defensive specialist who can make some magic happen in transition.
Simmons could be brought in to bring some defensive punch to a team and then the next season he is a large expiring contract that could be used as salary filler in a superstar trade which in today’s NBA having a contract to put in trades is almost as good as having cap space.
The fits are few and far between but here are some teams that could maybe bring in Ben Simmons
Golden State
Philadelphia lol
Detroit also lol
Yeah this one might not happen
Cam Thomas
Cam Thomas is a bucket and a problem and I don’t know what his role is supposed to be on this Nets team. It seems like every so often he is unhappy about his minutes and he wants a bigger role but I just don’t think that a team that hands over a large chunk of possessions to Cam Thomas is going to be very good so I don’t blame the Nets for being hesitant to just give him the reigns on offense but at the same time the Nets aren’t very good anyway so who are they to say he shouldn’t be getting his shots up.
Anyway there is no track record of this but I feel like Thomas could be what I believe the Nets drafted him to be which is an instant offense off the bench player on a team with real superstars.
When looking for a Cam Thomas landing spot I’m just searching for any team who’s productivity falls off a cliff when their starting guards are off the court. Here are some of the interesting fits:
Minnesota
Boston
Miami
Orlando
Again he’s so young and cheap I don’t think the Nets will trade him but I think based on how they have treated him it is clear they don’t want to build around him so why not set him free and see what you can get back.
Dennis Smith Jr
Dennis Smith is an interesting trade target for contending teams because he is such a poor offensive player it would honestly be difficult for a good team to give him regular rotation minutes but his on ball defense is the kind of thing that will be useful to a good team in a playoff series that requires them to play matchups, I could see him being on the Sixers and playing a lot of minutes against the Cavs and then not playing one second against the Celtics.
Anyway it’s always tricky to gauge the value of a specialist so I’m not sure that the Nets could get more than a couple of second round picks which isn’t a lot but they signed him for nothing but I’d say the process of signing a guy to a minimum and then flipping him for picks is defensible so why not.
As far as where he could go I’d say absolutely anywhere because I’m projecting that on a good team he’d be a ninth man defensive specialist guy and who couldn’t use a guy like that.
Also a small note after watching him to start his career in Dallas I’m always waiting for his offensive juice to bounce back like everytime I watch him play I’m just waiting for him to pop off but it just doesn’t seem to be happening maybe he gets traded to a good team and gets to have an awesome moment though.
Lonnie Walker
Lonnie Walker is just a good player on a minimum which is somewhat surprising considering he played pretty well on the Lakers last year, I’m not saying he took over the world or anything but he played pretty well for a team that made the conference finals and then he had to sign a minimum somewhere else.
Walker is 25, 6 ‘5, competes on defense and is shooting 44% from 3 this year and I think he could be a great bench player for a lot of contending teams. Similar to Dennis Smith Jr I don’t think any teams are going to be offering more than a couple of 2nd round picks for Walker but also similar to Dennis Smith Jr it is pretty good business to turn minimum signings into draft picks.
I know I said he could fit on any team but here are some contending teams that could use more wing depth
Boston – I think he could do something in the Payton Pritchard minutes
Milwaukee – He could start over Malik Beasley
Cleveland – He could take the Issac Okoro minutes
Miami – He would be so good on the steroids they’ve got going in Miami
The Dishwasher 
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