The Brooklyn Nets Have Come Up With Some Sort Of Plan

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, a plan. You can deny it til the crows caw and the cows come home but you’d be wrong. There’s no arguing that signing multiple basketball players to a basketball team is, in fact, a plan.

Now, is it a good plan? Heavens no. I can see a world where Brooklyn would rather pay Kyrie than D’Angelo this summer. I can see a world where they like their current pace of growth in their timeline and just want to build around D’Angelo while adding other players like Julius Randle to their core. I could see Brooklyn signing neither and bringing Kemba back to New York. I think all three of those are viable options the Brooklyn Nets should and will undoubtedly explore over the coming weeks before free agency officially opens.

The one they should stop mulling over is Kyrie + D’Angelo. If the NBA was just an open gym and everyone was playing pickup, calling their own fouls in games to 21 then a D’Angelo and Kyrie pairing would be deadly. In the NBA having essentially carbon copy players feels potentially problematic. Especially with the chunk of cap space that duo would eat up, Brooklyn would be locked in to Kyrie and Younger Kyrie with not much wiggle room. Granted, they have some solid assets and could make a trade, but if the idea is to sign one of the marquee free agents to pair with D’Angelo why not go chase Jimmy Butler or go all in on Kawhi? You know, someone who is equipped with a completely different skillset and can still bring you what you’re looking for in Kyrie in the first place.

I do view Brooklyn as one of the premier free agent destinations this summer, so them being able to woo Kyrie wouldn’t shock me at all. If he wants New York, why not go to the more competent franchise with multiple contributing NBA players already on the roster? That makes all the sense in the world to me. To go there and team up with D’Angelo? That makes less sense.