The Brooklyn franchise knows the dangers of making short-term decisions and signing big players in hopes of title contention. After the bad results that followed after their blockbuster trade involving Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, the Nets are probably the biggest example in the NBA that you need to start slow, be smart and trust the process.
Despite recruiting nearly three of the best All-Stars in league history, they only spent two seasons together in New York, culminating in a second-round loss to the Bucks in 2021. After this failure, each star left to continue. their dreams elsewhere.
After another bad NBA season, team owner Joe Tsai decided to change strategy as he agreed that the Nets needed a new approach. “I want to create a successful concept and a sustainable culture,” he said last week at JP Morgan's Global China Summit in Shanghai.
Joe Tsai has made it clear what he wants his role with the Nets to be pic.twitter.com/dXUQX8h32g
— New York Post (@nypost) May 28, 2024
“Those two things are very different things. “If you just want to be successful now, you can ruin your future by selling all your assets, but I think what I want to do with the Brooklyn Nets is take a long-term approach and build a stable, winning culture,” he continued.
When asked about how he works as an NBA owner, he said no one should expect him to be the face of the franchise, because it's not about him at all. “I think being a team owner in a major American sports team is rare because there are so few of them. There are 32 teams in the NFL, 30 teams in the NBA: That's it. So you can end up overdoing it,” said Tsai not long ago.
“So my first principle is don't take yourself too seriously. Don't be the face of the franchise, because it's not about you. The fans don't care about you: they care about the players. They care about the star players,” he confirmed.
According to Joe, fans are always the protagonist in sports. “The second thing about having a sports franchise is who are you working for? He works for the fans. So you have to come in with that mindset, especially if you have a big sports team in a big city,” concluded Tsai.
This past season, Brooklyn placed its trust in its rookie players more than ever
We can say that a lot is changing in the Nets organization, especially the way they deal with the growth of their team and the philosophy of basketball. This past campaign, their three rookies played an important role in their team, proving that they wish to develop long-term players, instead of relying on blockbuster superstars.
Jalen Wilson is a perfect example, as he was expected to be one of the two players in Brooklyn and will spend most of the season in the G League. However, he ended up competing in more than half of the squad's regular season games. “I think when you say 82 games like you don't really see it as 82 games,” he said of his expectations for his first season, after participating in 43 games in total.
The most he ever played was a 37-game campaign with the Jayhawks in Kansas. “Like in college, you're lucky to play 30, 35 games. Like, you're lucky to (be) one of the teams that play in March Madness and stuff like that,” he explained. “So to be able to play almost like every other day, it's great.”
Regarding Noah Clowney, his coach praised him for his contributions. “[Clowney] he had a great end to the season showing what he can do with real NBA minutes and now we have high expectations for him — Continue to get better because now he's not the player he was before,” said the Brooklyn coach.
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