Brooklyn Nets NBA Draft Recap

(BROOKLYN) —  The 2016 NBA draft was certainly interesting for the Brooklyn Nets.

On the morning of the draft, the Nets shipped Thaddeus Young to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the No. 20 overall pick, as well as a future protected second rounder.  They used that selection on Michigan guard Caris LeVert, who is immensely talented.  Many experts believe he slipped in the draft due to injury concerns.

The Young/LeVert swap cannot become official until after July 1., so GM Sean Marks will have to wait a week before they can discuss their first round pick.  If LeVert can recover from the various injuries which hampered him in college, the Nets may have gotten themselves a late first-round steal.

In the second round, the Nets traded up from No. 55 to No. 42 to select 6’5″ point guard Isaiah Whitehead out of Seton Hall.  Whitehead is from Brooklyn, and he will be the first player from the borough to wear a Nets uniform.

This was a good night for the Nets.  They got worse in the short term by dealing Young, but acquired two young assets in LeVert and Whitehead.  Both could become key cogs for the Nets in the future.

Next up for the Nets is the start of free agency on July 1.  The Nets will be armed with close to $50 million in cap space, and can start filling out the remainder of their roster with free agents.  Just because the Nets will have all this money to spend doesn’t mean they will use it all up in one offseason.

“It’s not going out there and spending money just for the sake of spending it. We’ll hopefully make the right decisions and it starts with bringing in high character people”, Marks said.  “I think we’ll get the right people and we’ll get people that want to come here,” he added.

Regardless of what happens during free agency, the Nets took one huge step forward in the start of their rebuilding process.  After what this franchise has been through over the years, that’s all you can ask for.