SALT LAKE CITY — The Nets are on the longest street journey of their season. And crucial.
However maybe not in the best way many assume.
The trades of Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith doubled down on the Nets’ dedication to constructing by the draft.
And this marathon six-game trek could have an outsize impression on their positioning for that all-important lottery.
“We’re constructing this, and we’re constructing this for hopefully sustainable success,” Nets GM Sean Marks advised The Put up. “That’s what we wish. We wish to get to that.
“We’re going to need to be systematic with a few of the selections we make. They usually could not all the time be in step with successful the subsequent sport or placing essentially the most expertise on the market.”
Lower than a month in the past, the Nets had Schroder and Finney-Smith and have been sitting within the fifteenth draft place, with no probability at even a top-four decide.
However Brooklyn (13-25) has dropped seven of eight, and the previous 4 by a mixed 77 factors. Now the Nets have the sixth-best odds within the lottery, with a 37.2 % probability of getting inside the highest 4 and 9 % probability of touchdown the highest total decide.
“To be frank, you’ve nonetheless acquired to get just a little fortunate. Everyone knows that,” Marks advised The Put up. “The new-button subject has all the time been the draft. Everyone knows we’ve nonetheless acquired to get fortunate. On the finish of the day, the Ping-Pong balls are going to drop a sure method.”
The Nets got here into the weekend a half-game forward of the seventh-place Path Blazers within the lottery standings, and three behind the fifth-place Jazz.
Brooklyn’s subsequent two tilts? Sunday in Utah, and Tuesday in Portland.
It’s apparent how vital the video games might be to these Ping-Pong balls.
“They’re doing precisely what they need to be doing,” a Western Convention scout advised The Put up.
In seventh, the Nets’ odds would fall to 32.0 % for the highest 4 and seven.5 % for the highest total decide. Climb to fifth, and people enhance to 48.1 % and 12.5 %.
The Nets will face a Utah group taking part in on the second evening of a back-to-back, having been at Phoenix on Saturday. However the Jazz have gained two of their prior 4 and have three straight winnable video games, one versus the Hornets (fourth within the lottery seedings) and two in opposition to the Pelicans (second within the seedings).
Then Brooklyn heads to Portland to face a Blazers squad that had gained 4 of eight earlier than Saturday’s tilt in opposition to the Warmth.
This journey began with a loss in Denver, and after these subsequent two video games continues with the Clippers, Lakers and Thunder. It’s not solely Brooklyn’s longest of the season, however only one shy of the longest in the whole NBA for 2024-25.
“We’ve acquired to concentrate on simply getting higher,” Ben Simmons stated. “We will’t actually concentrate on all of the video games arising. We’ve acquired focus day at a time and simply getting higher. We’ve acquired to maintain enhancing, watch movie and attempt to get higher. It’s not going to occur in a single day, but it surely’s one thing we’ve simply acquired to be centered on.”
Jordi Fernandez echoed these sentiments.
“I don’t assume we wish to be considering, ‘Oh, it is a lengthy street journey.’ No … as soon as [one game] is over, then we’ll take into consideration the subsequent group,” Fernandez stated. “That’s the mentality now we have. Hold getting higher, getting more healthy, working with the brand new teams now we have now on the court docket. And that’s what I wish to see, that competitiveness, improvement. That’s the issues we’re engaged on.”
For a rebuilding group, which means creating younger gamers corresponding to Noah Clowney, Keon Johnson and others.
“We all know it’s gonna be an extended street journey,” Johnson stated. “We’re in all places. However simply locking in sooner or later at a time and taking it one sport at a time is the easiest way we will go about it, as a result of we’re restricted, simply with a couple of guys. However that’s in addition to the purpose. The chance’s there for lots of fellows, so simply with the ability to reap the benefits of the second, this in entrance of us proper now.”