Zach Lowe's "35 Crazy Predictions" include some on Brooklyn Nets

Zach Lowe of Grantland has his "35 Crazy Predictions" for the season and one of them has to do with the Nets big three (?) of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young and Joe Johnson. Lowe thinks the Nets will hang on to all three, but thinks they shouldn't.  If the Nets sink lower and lower in the East, he thinks Billy King would be wise to entertain offers for Lopez and Young ... as long as those offers include draft picks.

If the Nets stink and they can get a future first-round pick for Young, they should do it — even it costs them wins. Getting that kind of return for Young will be tough, with teams again valuing first-round picks like gold, and the Nets may be the kind of team that is more concerned with optics than sound management.

They might be able to get more than one first-round pick for Lopez if he keeps rolling, but they need Lopez to lure free agents this summer, when they could have enough cap space for two max contracts

Lowe also argues that the Nets are unlikely to move Johnson because any trade would require the Nets to take on multiple, longer-contracts... that would reduce their cap space.

They’re determined to preserve that space, so they won’t flip Johnson’s massive expiring contract for two or three rotation players on longer deals — the sort of panicked win-now move that has been their M.O. the last four years. The Nets won’t clog their cap sheet, and those kinds of deals are much harder to find today anyway. Contracts are shorter, and the league is swimming in future cap room. There just aren’t many good players on multiyear deals that teams are itching to dump.

Lowe predicts that the Knicks will win the Battle of New York. This prediction is particularly dire.

The Nets roster beyond Brook Lopez, Thad Young, and Joe Johnson is a train wreck, and the Young-Lopez front line isn’t stopping anyone. The Nets are one Lopez foot injury from being a sub-20-win team.

In other predictions, Lowe takes a look at the case against Sam Hinkie, the 76ers GM, citing how he reportedly broke a promise to Billy King.

People around Jorge Gutierrez complain that Philly promised Brooklyn it wouldn’t waive Gutierrez after demanding the Nets include him in the Andrei Kirilenko deal, only to waive him almost immediately; the Sixers deny making any such promises.

• 35 Crazy Predictions for the 2015-16 NBA Season - Zach Lowe - Grantland