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Can Nets stick with new model ... or will they go rogue again?

Brooklyn Nets

Matt Moore of CBS Sports gave the Nets an "A" for their off-season, primarily because it marked a change in their philosophy: no more big deals, draft pick giveaways or aging veteran signings.  But in a column Sunday, he wonders if the team won't be tempted to return to form next summer when all that TV money will just be sitting there.

Although Moore makes an error in calculating how much the Nets have paid out in luxury taxes during the Prokhorov Era --it's $123.4 million, not $138 million-- he (again) offers a dismal view of the Nets situation going forward.

Brooklyn seems to have admitted defeat, ending the dysfunctional Deron Williams relationship and moving toward younger pieces. However, vs. teams that may have struggled with the same mediocrity Brooklyn has but didn't overextend themselves, there's little to be hopeful about. This is going to be a long-term rebuilding project that's like having to gut an old house and build it back up from the bottom. They can't just remodel the kitchen and put in a new septic tank. The whole thing's gotta go, basement up.

With that in mind, he argues the Nets may go for the home rum (aka Kevin Durant) next season, fail and overpay for other, middling players, getting themselves stuck in a never-ending cycle.  He suggests instead that the Nets consider trading the two 27-year-olds they signed this summer -- Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young-- for a raft of draft picks.

A lot of teams have doomed themselves by feeling they "had" to spend their cap space when their top target turned them down, and wound up shackling themselves to big-money deals for lesser players.

That's the biggest question going forward for Brooklyn after the debacle of the Big Money Era. Did they learn from their mistakes?

One reason he believes the Nets may not have learned is the continuing presence of Billy King, who while noting is not as bad as Isiah Thomas, "it's just surprising that a guy could make one high-profile, expensive, long-term-costly mistake after another -- in not only a major market, but New York of all places -- and still retain his job."

Moore recites the Nets draft pick situation stating they don't have "their own second-round pick until 2021 ... the next decade!"  The Nets have a pick next June, but must swap it with the Clippers, the price of Reggie Evans in 2012. And the Nets have bought seven second round picks in the last five drafts.at a cost of $6.8 million.