Howard Beck on ‘Ain’t Hard To Tell’ Podcast: Nets have big cultural decisions

For those of you who don’t know, Dexter Henry and yours truly, Netsdaily’s own, host the Ain’t Hard To Tell Podcast, a venture recorded and streamed via Backpack Broadcasting, an independent media company founded by Henry.

This week, Howard Beck, senior basketball writer for Bleacher Report and former Nets beat writer for the New York Times, joined us for episode 17. Here ya go...

Good news for you guys, we talked Nets!

Well, a little bit at least. Beck praised both Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson for the Nets rebuild, but noted that now the team is facing a big decision on its culture. Do they treat players like assets instead of people, dumping them just to move up?

“The curiosity for me now is whether they sell on some guys because there are teams that could really use Spencer Dinwiddie, there are teams that could really use Joe Harris, DeMarre Carroll, who has certainly revived his career after a couple of rough years in Toronto where he was mostly hurt,” Beck said.

“So you’ve got guys now with value that contenders could use, that playoff teams could use. But those guys are also the epitome of your culture now. That would be painful, very painful for them as an organization.”

Beck cited the case of Spencer Dinwiddie who has been a “revelation,” but is highly unlikely to be an All-Star guard. Do you flip him for mid-level first rounder who could become an All-Star?

He also noted that the Nets surprisingly strong play had “ruined” the Kyrie Irving trade for Cleveland.

“They are, they’re ruining the Kyrie trade,” said Beck. “[The Nets] could fall off the cliff and the pick could jump right back in the the top five but right now they’re ruining it with an eighth, ninth, tenth pick. You didn’t trade Kyrie to get the tenth pick. You traded him for chance to get a top three pick, five at a minimum.”

Nets talk, in-depth, begins around the 1:09:00 mark.

Throughout the episode, there’s a lot on the state of journalism, possible NBA trades, NBA All-Star format and the outlook on different teams. We, meaning mostly Howard, discuss the Nets at the tail end of the episode, with other mentions throughout.

If they’re not added by the time you read this, time stamps will definitely be added.

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