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DRAFT DAY: With four picks and big ambitions, Nets picture remain unsettled

By Net Income

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The HSS Training Center has gone quiet as Sean Marks et al get ready for the action that starts at 8 p.m. ET three miles up Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue inside Barclays Center.

There’s no indication that the Nets will work out any prospects this morning. They could and they have in the past. There are probably dozens of prospects in the city with bags at the ready.

There’s also nothing firm on the possibility of a trade or trades. There are rumors that the Nets want to move up and speculation they want to move Landry Shamet to dump DeAndre Jordan’s contract. He’s owed $19.7 million over the next two and didn’t play a minute between May 18 and season’s end.

Mock drafts have been suggesting Nets interest in Day’Ron Sharpe, the 6’11” center from North Carolina, for weeks, but in recent days, names like Joshua Primo, the Alabama shooting guard; Miles McBride, the West Virginia point guard; and Tre Mann, the Illinois shooting guard, have entered the picture. Ziaire Williams, the 6’9” swingman from Stanford, has also been linked to the Nets, but he’s been moving up fast on mocks. Of course, if the Nets move up — and don’t trade the pick in a DJ salary dump — options will grow.

For the record, ESPN’s last mock this morning had the Nets taking Sharpe, who has become the consensus pick.

One thing is certain. Marks is going to be aggressive. He goes into Draft Day (which could also be called Trade Day) with picks at Nos. 27, 44, 49 and 59 nine free agents and a record of making moves, big and small this time of year.

Here’s the record of trades within 48 hours of the Draft:

  • 2016: Nets traded Thaddeus Young to the Pacers for the rights to Caris LeVert and a future second, tonight’s No. 44 pick;
  • 2017: Nets traded Brook Lopez and the rights to Kyle Kuzma to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov;
  • 2018: Nets traded Mozgov, two future second rounders and $5 million in cash to the Hornets for Dwight Howard who they waived.
  • 2019: Nets traded the rights to Mfiondu Kabengele to the Clippers for a first rounder in 2020 and the rights to Jaylen Hands, a salary dump to prepare for the Clean Sweep. (A couple of weeks earlier, they had traded Allen Crabbe and two firsts, including the 17th pick in 2019 for Taurean Prince and a future second which turned into the 49th pick tonight.)
  • 2020: The Nets, Pistons and Clippers did a three-team deal broken into two components, one two days before the Draft, the other during the second round on Draft Night. The Nets sent out Dzanan Musa, the rights to Hands, a future second, the rights to Saddique Bey, getting Bruce Brown, Shamet and the rights to Reggie Perry in return.

All that said, the big question tonight, which will become evident during the day, is whether the Nets are in retrenching mode by dumping Jordan for future assets or looking for a building block or two in the Draft. They are a title contender and must think like that.

Stay tuned.

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