Could Brooklyn Nets trade up for Dylan Harper at #2?

Could Brooklyn Nets trade up for Dylan Harper at #2?

Coming up as the NBA draft looms next month, we take a look at the latest rumor that suggests maybe, just maybe, Marks and the Brooklyn Nets want to get up board and get themselves a Dylan Harper stud point guard in their back court. We discuss if it’s possible. All coming up next. You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Ah, yes, my friends. It is the Locked Onets podcast right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. He’s Doug Nory. I’m Adam Marbick. We thank you as always for making us your first listen today. We’re 100% free on all those great platforms. and Doug as we dive into what is a pretty substantial rumor, even if it’s just turning out the mill a little bit here heading towards the draft. We also kick off our final week counting it down, five up, five to go of our time here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Yeah, man. I obviously, you know, sad days ahead here, but better days ahead for Lockdown Nets as a feed, so that’ll keep going. We’ll have some stuff about that later on uh in the week here. But this is a cool draft. You know, just getting into Nets, the things that are important, obviously the Nets draft. Um, this is a cool draft because you do have these teams, not Dallas, who, you know, luck boxes its way into number one, but at two and three, you have these teams in the Spurs and, you know, to some degree, the Sixers, too. Well, actually, maybe a lot of degree, the Sixers who it’s like, yeah, everyone would love to have the second and third pick in the draft, but they’re at like slightly different places with their build and like sort of who the roster is and where it kind of does matter to draft on fit and sort of what you need. you know, most teams that are up at the top of the draft, like just draft the best player and we’ll figure it out later. But you do have these two situations where the teams are at slightly different timelines. You could make strong cases that they could should just go absolutely for it now or they have bad contracts. And so most times when you get the second or third pick, you’re like, “Okay, well, let’s just do it.” But these teams can make compelling cases to not do it here. and with the Spurs with Harper to some, you know, to the lesser extent with um because Harper’s I think people see as sort of like a no doubt number two pick. Yeah, it’d be very interesting as the rumors would suggest that they might be in like thinking about getting out of this pick in order to really make a massive upgrade now for a win now piece around and like let’s just get going and dear Fox and what and and Facel and all these other guys. It’s like fascinating. I don’t know. I don’t, you know, we’ll talk about whether the Nets are in the party here, but it’s you just really never see stuff like this happen for obvious reasons about like who’s going to be top of the draft in terms of talent and yeah, you mentioned it too specifically with the Spurs that you know because the conversation of oh is it possible we know with the Giannis looking to get out of Milwaukee and we feel like that trade is going to be impending this off seasonason. So now maybe the Spurs are having a different two different conversations, right? the one where we go all in and we go get Giannis and him with Wemby and that sounds great or the version of it where what are some other pieces maybe that are out there and you say that because Milwaukee doesn’t have the eighth pick like the Brooklyn Nets do, right? Or one of these other lottery picks that you can go ahead and put into the mix to have that conversation. I will say it’s funny to be using the Spurs as the example right now. It’s funny to be in a position where you have Webmanyama so you know you have this this generational talent on your roster and you’re also maybe on the precipice of making like a franchise altering decision about do you just draft Dylan Harper at two, do you trade out of it and then what’s the player that you get at 7 8 9 10 wherever you end up landing or going for Giannis. So from an NBA narrative standpoint, we’ve talked about this a lot over the years. Even when you have some of the guys, even when you think you have the guys, you’re still always reaching an inflection point about are we going a slight left here, a slight right, staying down the middle. So even when you have locked in talent, you still have to make that next critical decision to make sure you keep pushing towards being a contender and hopefully winning championships. Yeah, it’s it’s like just this is what the ever nation ever changing nature of the NBA just dictates that you’re kind of just like never set. You’re kind of always making these decision these dynamic decisions on the fly about what’s best. Now, I think they’d be best served just drafting Harper and like trading, you know, Darren Fox or something like that and just be like having Harper be on WebMy’s timeline and just call it a day. But I don’t think that’s sort of how they view it. Also, we should say that I guess like according to some sources, Giannis met with the Bucks and he’s not going to seek a trade. I feels a little smoking mirror because they’re going to like still try to contend. It’s like sort of impossible to envision how that even happens with Lillard’s contract and no assets and no other players. But um I feel like that’s a little bit of a smoke screen to be like everyone gets good guy points and then the Bucks get overwhelmed by a trade. It’s I think like that’s my Yeah. Like I think it’s like this is where everyone feels good about what they said and the wink wink nod nod is like if you get a huge package and I kind of agree to go somewhere then we’re all just going to say that like that’s what we meant to do. But for now I’m not going to request a trade and blah blah blah like so it just feels impossible to think that they could think they could contend with any of this stuff. But, you know, where the Spurs sit, I mean, let’s just get let’s just cut to it here then. Is do you think the Nets should or could be in the mix to get to move all the way up here to two? Like, they’ve been sort of rumored. Nets are in every rumor now because they have tons of picks and they have tons of uh cap space. So, like they have just mo ultimate flexibility, no talent, but they have ultimate flexibility uh in terms of like Just kidding. Uh in terms of what they can do. Do you think that this is like at all realistic around them making a push to get up to number two? Realistic, yes. Because teams are going to be open to these things, right? Realistic, yes. The real question about should they be doing it, right? This is where it’s so funny. Now, if this was for Cooper flagging number one, I think I I know it would be a different type of conversation, but that’s not on the table. Dylan Harper’s awesome. Dylan Harper’s great. He said it’d be awesome to luck into that second spot with the odds and still be able to get a franchise backcourt player. But it’s a different conversation if you’re talking about we give you the eighth overall pick. So if you’re the Spurs, you’re only going to move down six spots. So you’re still going to get a lottery talent. And we talked about those guys. It’s a different tier. Fine. But then what? 19 26 a future first. At some point now you’re doing the equation about how much is the prospect of Dylan Harper’s career worth? And I I I even if he ends up coming to the place where, you know, seven years from now, we’re having superstar trade conversation about where is Dylan Harper going to go and what team’s going to give up a hall of draft picks. That happens. It’s happening with Giannis. It happened with KD, right? It happens with superstars all the time. But to give up assets on the projected value of a career is really, I think, hard to do. So, I find myself saying, I think Dylan Harper is great, but if I’m going to give up three first round picks in this year, maybe not. I don’t know. I don’t know what the math looks like, but whatever I’m going to give up, that’s significant. And then you will be watching whoever the Spurs take at eight and what that player ends up doing and at 19. And there will be that critical thinking about where is the true value in a player like this relative to all the picks you’re going to make. I would say the Nets shouldn’t do it if I’m making the case, but I think it is at least on the table because it’s incredible value for San Antonio who already has their cornerstone in WBY. Right. Exactly. And so if you’re like, you know, somehow getting like Cam Johnson plus some later picks or something like that, they were getting a player, maybe like you’re having a real conversation about it. I think what you’re saying is if you’re if you’re swapping out the eighth pick to move up to two and giving up some other stuff, that’s like a tougher pill to swallow with where the Nets are like just in their overall talent base, right? So it’s like let’s agree. Let’s just even say, okay, well Harper, let’s say he’s a surefire thing. I think he’s pretty close to like being surefire like allstar quality, right? like just the way he plays. I think it’s not surefire. That’s a that’s a tough claim. Clay, tough claim to make. I think it’s like for where he is compared to other draft picks, like he ranks very high on the high floor. Understanding that no one’s a lock, right? Like no. So lots of things can happen. No one’s a lock. I think the way he projects though projects as good as like any other player coming into drafts that’s especially a guard type, right? Like that’s just kind of like playing like that. at the same time. Well, I have actually one more point about this because like there’s another factor that factors in here with where the Nets are. Um, go ahead. Yeah. No, no, because I was gonna say we we’ll we’re gonna go to a break here because when we come back, I think this is what is fascinating about it because I also can paint this other version of doing this thing that does become very fascinating from a Net’s perspective. So, we’ll hear Doug’s thoughts on on where he sees the Nets currently in their timeline and what it would mean to get Dylan Harper in this moment, but also if you got Dylan Harper in this moment, how would that make, as I just talked about at the top, an inflection point for the franchise to start making different decisions now as opposed to over the next couple of seasons? We’ll do that here in just one moment. All right, before we get to that, tell my friends over at Monarch Money. Look, you ever check that bank account and wonder where did all my money go? Oh, you got dine out, you got online shopping, you got entertainment, inflation. It’s easy to lose track where Monarch Money comes in. It’s your personal CFO. Gives you full visibility and control over your finances. Look, Monarch Money isn’t just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You track all those accounts, investment, spending in one place, and you just stop managing your money. You start building that wealth, baby. You maybe start using Monarch Money. Realize how much you’re spending on food delivery on some of those apps that you haven’t quit yet. You’re going to budget smarter. You’re going to save more. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. Code lockedonba for half off your first year. monarchmoney.com. All right, as we continue today’s locked on Nets episode, we think about where the Brooklyn Nets are. What it would mean maybe to go get Dylan Harper. But before I give the other version of this scenario, you were talking about where the Nets stand in their current timeline, the outlook, right? Like the agenda. You trade up and you get Dylan Harper, but you know, you’re still a lot of pieces away from building out a competitive fra roster, excuse me. They’re just so far away in talent. Like they have no cornerstone pieces. Now, maybe you say Dylan Harper is a cornerstone piece and that’s where you begin to build off of and that makes sense. It’s just they just have like so little else to draw on at this point that’s like proven to be anything you need in terms of like making like a long push into a really winning franchise. And even the guys you can squint and see it on are off the timeline age-wise anyway. So it’s like at this point you they can make a very strong case that they just need to take as many bites at the apple as possible when it comes to the draft. And to reduce draft picks around high floors around other guys is a close call. Now again, almost any other team can make the case like any other team that even as bad right now, if they had as many picks as the Nets had could make a case where getting up to Harper to be on the same timeline as like one or two of their other guys is like let’s say Charlotte or something like that. It’s like well we got Brandon Miller, maybe we pair him with LaMelo and now we have Dylan Harp. That’s like a weirder one, but like you don’t understand what I’m saying. It’s like now we pair him with Harper and now we have like a a threeperson thing. It’s like, okay, so I can swap two or three picks out to do that because I’m like really consolidating and I’m the Jazz could have that kind of conversation. Exactly. It’s like Lori Markin and like some of these other guys or like whatever um some of these other young guys they have. The Nets just like have so nothing in terms of that that like they just can’t even make the case to do it. So, okay, you can make the case because Harper’s good, but you can’t make the case that you’re consolidating assets to like really start making a push into like this current timeline. So, at that point, and we know this draft is so deep. We’ve done all this stuff on this where these guys like your boy Rena is like kind of uh bumping up the draft like he really showed out. Like some of these guys are going to be in the 20s could be like real dudes. And so, yeah, because the Nets just have so little and that’s even if you’re like the most bullish Cam Thomas person in the world or something, even then you’re not there. And so you just I think you just can’t really make the case to consolidate assets into a guy when you have so few o sort of draw on except for these draft picks that and it’s a deep draft. So I just think you make the case stay home if you can get it like for Cam Johnson and like a late a later pick maybe. But like you got to you got to just take all the draft picks. Does that make sense? Or or maybe just or auction off some of these future ones like the Knicks picks or something. Like I just think that the Nets, which isn’t realistic, so I don’t think it’s worth it, but like does that make sense? I just think they’re so far away that they just have to just draft every guy they can and hope that they land on the hopes some of these guys turn into like real hits. I I tend Yes. I tend to fall on that side of it. And by the way, while the Spurs would be saying, “Hey, we’re like we’re talking about like a win now window, you know, as you mentioned, let’s let’s say it’s uh it’s going to be pick eight, it’s going to be Cam Johnson, and it’s also going to be pick 27.” Like let’s just say, right? And is that enough or not? Who cares? But maybe they also like poke around, they go, I know, I know we’re we’re trying to push into win now window. We like Noah Clowny, though, too. Like, he seems like a good development. You know, he seems to be a good guy that actually could really develop and help our team. Maybe we want to throw him in the mix, right? So, maybe they end up actually eating away even a little bit of the young talent. Now, what I will say is the the the case for the Brooklyn Nets to do this would be, okay, San Antonio, you want pick eight, you want and you know, you’d want to keep Cam Johnson around in this version, but you want pick eight, you want Cam Johnson, and you want another pick. Okay, fine. Deal done. Milwaukee, how many first round picks does it take for Giannis? And now we do what we talk about the Spurs thinking about doing it, too. You know, oh, do they want to be there? Do they want to trade out with Milwaukee to get Giannis in with WBY? Now you end up saying Brooklyn, what are we going to be? We’re going to bring in Giannis. We’re going to get ourselves Dylan Harper, who’s our future guy. We’re also going to kind of kick open this ability to win now. We’re going to say we still have Cam Thomas on this roster. That’s a nice backcourt combination there. And you actually do open up. Now, is that championship contention? No. But by the way, they’re going to have plenty of money. They can they they can bring in contracts even after Giannis. They can shed off if they send out uh Cam Johnson. And I was just having this conversation with a guy on the network around Memphis in our mockdraft just saying, “Oh, maybe the net, maybe the Grizzlies want to reset.” And you and I were talking privately about like Jiren Jackson Jr. and 25 million right now. It’s like, “Oh, guess what? The Brooklyn Nets can absorb that entire contract in the upcoming season without having sent a single dollar out.” So, there is a world where if you were going to do this pivot, then I’m I would say pivot and then pivot hard and and let let’s go ahead and kick it open because the version of just getting Dylan Harper and saying you have that cornerstone piece to your point still leaves you saying, “Okay, so over the next couple of years, we’ll try to add to this roster. We’ll try to sign, you know, sign some guys. We’ll have cap space.” But it still leaves ambiguity if you don’t have that next move. Whereas if Giannis is available, then I think you do start to have a different type of conversation about what you’re building out in the short term and over the next four or five years. And what we’re also seeing, I mean, the the case too to just stay home here is that the what we’re seeing is from the M because you know, even in reference to the moves you just said, what we’re seeing from the NBA right now, at least with the teams that are left, is that like you have to have like incredibly deep rosters. Like you just can’t get by. Like the one superstar is just like not doing it. like it it literally didn’t do it for any of these teams. Like you had to have full starting fives with like a couple guys that could come off the bench to be able to sort of pivot into, you know, the right kind of strategy in in the moment. Like all these teams and I what everyone’s going to say, I mean, everyone backs this about like where all these guys draft pick-wise were because all these guys that are left except for Ant were basically, you know, lower draft picks. And it’s okay, I get it. But but but it does speak to the idea of one, for sure, different players can different stars can come from different points in the draft. No one’s ever made contention on this. It’s just that like the the the higher percentage comes from the top. Like it’s that it’s not no one’s ever said that like they can’t come from like clearly they can come from other places. But what we’re seeing is like you just need to have like a fully deep team like especially in this hardc era like you just the more flexibility you have at being like six, seven guys deep around like real like very good star at the top. They all have a star. Brunson star, SGA star, Ant star, Hallebertton star. Although it’s like a little unconventional, a little different than the other guys, but still star then no weaknesses like the rest of like sort of the rest of the the four or five next guys up is that like having a deep talented roster is very very important now. And it’s going to probably continue to be this way as it gets harder and harder to team build. um just going forward with some of the way these guys make it and which is another case to be like just go for depth and just don’t they have the the Nets like one advantage right now is they’re sitting on a ton of draft picks that will be cost controlled for years and years and years. Yeah. They just have to kind of stay with that I think and just build out you know organic whatever you want to call it a team that has balance and depth. That’s just the way that things are are just kind of going in the NBA now. And I just don’t I don’t think that’s going to really change. I think that there’s a few guys that are worth it at max contracts because they’re worth way more. Giannis is worth way more than a max contract. Luca worth way more than Jokic. If they actually had real dollar values in this, these guys would paid like double or something like that. After that though, like you just have to just go for depth across the roster and like and and just have a balanced team because that’s just the way to win. And I think that the way to do that for the Nets is to just, you know, stay with what they have and build as much talent as they possibly can to the draft. Yeah. When you talk about picking 8, 19, 26, and 27 obviously this year, but then their own next year and then that 2027 draft class, right, when you’re talking about three more picks and and even in this one, by the way, people keep reminding, you know, they bring this up consistently and I think it is worth noting like picking 36th in a deep draft class this year in the second round, like that matters. like being at the top of the second round again is also actually way different than when we talk about it, you know, in years prior. So you’re getting that’s like a mid that’s like a mid20s other drafts this this would be like a 20’s pick. Like that’s just this draft is crazy deep. It’s crazy deep. So it’s like the one year you want to kind of stay stick with it. Yeah. So yeah. So having these five picks this year and then next year your own, but then those three picks in 2027, right? So to to drill it back home to what you said, you know, 25, 26, 27, it’s three drafts, it’s, you know, three years where you’re going to have a massive influx of young controllable talent and then you can make your choices from there. And listen, yes, if the picks don’t work out, if some of them don’t hit, no, you don’t get to turn the card back in and say, “I’ll take a different first round pick later.” Like, we get that. But at some point, you have to trust that building with this much assets in these deep draft classes is going to be the best benefit for long-term success. Hopefully, I think that that’s the way the Brooklyn Nets are going to go here. But when you hear these rumors and the speculation, it at least does perk your ears about like, oh, are Shawn Marks and the Nets really having these discussions because it’s different. We’ll talk about in a second than taking big swings on superstars via trade. This is potentially taking a big swing to get the young franchise player. Is that something they should be doing? We’ll continue the discussion here on the other side. All right, as we tie a pretty little bow on today’s Lockdown Nets episode number five in our countdown to zero of Doug and myself parting ways. Guys don’t know this, we’re thinking about the Louise style, but I we haven’t confirmed that between you and I, but it’s probably the right way of the week. I think I would just say you go. You go first. You’ll be right behind me though, right? Yeah, you’re right behind me. I am right behind you, pal. Don’t you worry. Um, so as we talk about though, we’re gonna we’re gonna get back into the draft here a little bit because you mentioned um there’s players now that we’ve been given a little bit of buzz and chatter to the last couple weeks and now they’re jumping up the board here. I don’t know. By the end of this week, I’m pretty sure I’m going to we’re I’m going to get myself to be like, it’s probably just Cedric Coward at eight. That makes sense. It’s probably Rena at 19. Like that makes sense. Like let’s just go ahead and bump everybody up because we feel so good about what we’ve we’ve accomplished covering these guys. In the end, we both agree that the Nets are going to stay at home. whom you think like this is going to be picking at eight and that this even if it’s a discussion that the Nets are not ultimately going to end up making this move. Do you think that that’s the case? I put percentages on if you want. We always like to do that, but like it’s it’s it is fascinating that it’s coming up. We’re we’re far enough away from the draft that it feels like it could be still just kind of a you know chattery smoke conversation, but this is the first time we’ve heard this come up and we are as close as we’ve been to the draft. I think they will try. I think they’ll try to get there. And I think that they if it’s actually on the table that the Spurs would trade this pick, the Nets will not have like the best package to do it. Like that’s I I’ve kind of felt this way about some other stuff with them. It’s like I just think that like Yeah. And do you think that this could be like a little bit of like San Antonio maybe saying like and now we’ll leverage this like maybe we are interested in Giannis and so hey by the way Brooklyn’s interested like we have some maybe we have some opportunity here. And then that allows Milwaukee to go, “Okay, yeah, we’d like Dylan Harper. Let’s have the conversation.” Right? You trade that pick if you’re gonna get Giannis, if you’re gonna get Kevin Durant, if you’re gonna get like someone else that like you can win a championship with with WBY. It’s not for Cam Johnson in the eighth pick. Like that’s just not a championship move for what could be like generationalish talent, right? Um or just like let’s call it number one in many other year picked, you know, talent, right? Like what Dylan Harper would be. And so Cam Johnson plus like the eighth pick just like isn’t good enough to do that I don’t think even from an optic standpoint forget from a basketball standpoint. So I think the Nets will try and ultimately the deal just won’t even be good enough anyway because they’ll be like okay well again Durant even though it’s like a weird timeline but like clearly Durant plus WBY like that would be that’s championship level talent right there together right Darren Fox those three guys together like forget like you could do that. um Giannis clearly like some of these other guys who like might be available. Maybe that’s just the two. Like that’s what you do it for. Other than that, it’s just not good enough to just trade to get like it just wouldn’t make sense like to what more draft picks. That’s not what they want. They they want guys that they can pair with with WBY right now to win a championship. If you’re trading champion you you just and no one has a higher inflated idea about their own player than like when Nets fans are like Cam Johnson, they need a wing. It’s like that’s just not good enough. It’s not good enough for the number two. Like I I I everyone everyone thinks I’m the biggest wet blanket in the world when it comes to this stuff. And I know, by the way, it like doesn’t get me good engagement and whatever. And but people that kind of say this stuff, it’s just being so intellectually dishonest. Like it’s like it’s it there’s just no way you’re going to get Cam Johnson plus the pick for contingent that are like Cam Johnson, we got to get rid of him. How do we jettison this contract? Or all and this by the way, this is every every fan base across every sport, right? Ah, we don’t want him. He’s not good enough. We don’t need him here. His contract’s too much. Hey, we’re trying to shoot for the second pick. Baldy boy would Cam Johnson be perfect for you guys. He’s everything you need and so solve all your problems. Like solve all your So it’s just like I think that to some degree, you know, sort of what we said about the honest thing. It’s like Nets will kind of get saved. And by the way, no one will become a bigger Dylan Harper fan than me the second the Nets got him. So like no worries there. But the and and I actually think this one is close. This one is close like because it’s like he might be so good that it is worth jettisoning a couple like consolidating a couple picks to get it. So, I think it’s like not a total no-brainer, but the Nets just don’t have what a team like the Spurs would be looking for in this situation, which is t win now talent to go and win a championship with Victor Wyaba, right? So, and so they just are it’s just they don’t have the they don’t have the horses to get it done. And so, I I think from that standpoint, the Nets, it’s just not very realistic. I think they will try because I think that it’s worth it to try. They pro they clearly have wanted Harper. They were there at every game, every Ruckers game. They scatter the hell out of them like every team did. You know, New Jersey local. It’s like there’s a lot of things that line up here. I think they’ll try. I just don’t think their their package will be good enough to sway San Antonio into trade because again, when you trade the number two pick, you have to get a star back like because that player theoretically can be a star. That it’s pretty simple to me. And we can we can so and I will though this is the conversation. So there’s a couple things. One, I I agree with you as far as where the Nets are going to land in this. Now, from the Spurs side of it though, again, I’ll keep tying this back into the Giannis conversation, but if the Spurs trading out of two gets them more significant draft capital that they can’t get their hands on otherwise one to one and maybe Milwaukee saying like we don’t want necessarily Dylan, you know, whatever the version of it is, maybe we do want all of the draft capital and you pass it through, you know, so you know, Nets picks end up in Milwaukee’s lap that they’re sending to two cents to move up, but again, that’s still not controlling your own destiny as we know when it comes to, you know, draft capital. Exactly. That’s actually the last point was the point I was going to make is that I I agree with you on the sense that like sometimes having lots of draft picks makes it more enticing. The one difference there is that when you know who the guy is going to be in the draft, then that changes it like cuz a future pick we just don’t know. It’s like too many things can happen here. It’s like the number two pick but it’s not really it’s Dylan Harper, right? like it’s just the guy like so very few other times do you know even if like they tr even put it this way even if they swapped it out for like eight and other things you’re not even positive who it could be at eight because all the guys you have your at your eye on could get taken right before here it’s just like you’re so locked in to who it can be that is actually considerably more valuable than future picks because it’s the high pick and we know the exact guy whereas like we don’t have to worry about lottery balls or other teams drafting in front of us or getting sniped or anything like that. So, it’s just worth more in this situation. And and I think too, like you open up that other part of it, these other teams we mentioned at the top, right? Different versions, packages, what have you. If the conversation is opening up about teams that want to move up the board, you got to look at players and everything else. But you can look if you’re if you’re the San Antonio Spurs, maybe you’re looking at five or at six or at these areas where the player that we’ll get at five or six or seven is different than at eight, right? Or nine or 10, etc., right? So if we think we can still get Jeremiah Fierce, Trey Johnson, what you know, name the player BJ Edgecom, whatever it’s going to look like, that version is different. It’s why when we talked about the draft coming in after the Nets landed eighth, we went ah shoot because you’re just outside of some of these critical players that you’d like to have. What I will say is there so there’s versions of this about we things we’re going to do this week as as we close out our time, but as the feed as Doug said always says at the top, we’ll continue on heading towards the draft. Resetting our board, right? Like where where does everybody sit now? because there’s a lot of guys that need to be moved down to make room for some of these better players that are coming up. If the Brooklyn Nets are at eight, are we having the conversation about, you know, somebody calls, do we want to trade down? Will we move down to 10 to justify taking player X? I think there’s a a lot of things that are building out for the Brooklyn Nets here. And then some have said fans, oh, condensed 26 and 27 and 19 to get up to get guy X, right? Like two players, four players. the the blessing and the curse of having all these picks for the Brooklyn Nets is there will be endless speculation and scrutiny on whatever they choose to do and what on what every team around them does. If San Antonio trades at a two and it’s not with Brooklyn, the conversation is going to be should the Brooklyn Nets have made that move and thrown whatever it took to get that right. If they stay at eight, they take the player. Did they take the guy too high? If they trade back, did they miss out on the player? Like it’s this is going to be such a fascinating leadup. And then the postmortem on the draft for the Brooklyn Nets is going to be absolutely insane, which is going to be fun for the fan base and probably also like terrifying and agonizing. Oh yeah. It can’t If you’re a Nets fan, it can’t go any other way. It can’t be easy. It can never be easy. Like nothing can they just can’t get like if it was the two pick and you just take Dylan Harper and it’s easy and no one ever questions it or it’s Cooper flag or whatever. Like then it’s just done. Even Even if they had gotten three, it’d be endless. It’d be endless hand ringing around Ace or VJ. Like there would be endless yep talk and and whoever and and it would be years before the conversation was like put in the set in the stone about like if they got it right or wrong, right? So that would even be Nets that would be even Nets themed to like go at three and not have and have somehow Ace Bailey go from surefire number two to all of a sudden like should he be top four or something like that like like that would be such classic territory. So can never be easy. That’s just the way being a Nets fan is. Reminder to everyone out there, we’re gonna get out here. Look, act like we’ve been here with this Knicks series. I It’s just too I got to tell you like like I shouldn’t have brutal out there, guys. Getting pretty and a half minutes in this like you got to just tone it down. It s Nets fans are already behind the eightball on terms of like just having a franchise that’s been like had a little bit of a rough run for 25 straight years or whatever. But at the same time, give or take, like the part where the Nets fans like would sell one of their kids for the Nets to lose the Knicks to lose this series is just so bad. Like you got to act like you’ve been there. Root for the Pacers. If you want another team to win, fine. But the part where you just think it’s like you’re winning by like taking a lap on a net a Knicks loss is such a bad Are you with me on this? It’s like, oh, of course. Just be better. Be better. It’s so lame. It’s so lame. Like, yeah, like I said, you’re like, what? What? Ask that segment of the Nets fan base. I think legitimately the question is, do you care more about the Brooklyn Nets trying to build up their franchise and be competitive and and go for winning championships eventually, or would you rather just see the Knicks lose and and have misfortune befall them? Because there’s a it just feels like that’s more important to a certain segment of the fan base. Guess what? Knicks win a championship, doesn’t change anything for the Brooklyn Nets. Knicks lose in the Eastern Conference final doesn’t change anything with the Brooklyn Mets. I know there’s picks and all that jazz. Great. It does not change what’s going on for your franchise and what’s going to happen with your picks and your players. No, it’s my least favorite thing in sports. You see it especially in the NFL Giants fans that oh at least the Eagles. Oh no. What? Didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what happens. Just what’s that classic line? Farm your own land. Like just be there man. Enjoy what what’s going on in front of you and don’t somehow think you’re going to get satisfaction out of someone else’s misery. That’s not just sports. That’s life. That’s not just fandom. Being happy about someone else’s failings does not improve your life. It actually makes it significantly worse. Yeah. I mean, like the saying is like misery loves company, which is like kind of true, but it’s really just like misery loves misery. And so if you’re just going to be if you’re just going to be like if you’re worried about someone else being miserable, then you’re miserable. So, the the other way to take this is to just say whatever happens happens and just be out there. Hate to turn this like philosophical, but man, there’s a there’s some Nets fans out there that need like some time on the couch because it’s like it’s just it’s like so overboard. I can’t even believe it. It’s like just let them just just whatever whatever. Who cares? And I’m sure we’ll get flack for it. Okay, with that said, go leave a comment on YouTube about how much you hated that little little sidebar into like into Nick’s fan. Just Yeah. And by the way, leave a comment, but then make sure you subscribe. Number one way to help. So, leave a comment, say how much you hated it, and then subscribe to and then subscribe to the podcast. Al, I want to be really clear here, too, as we get out the door that like you got to I’m going to pat ourselves on the back. Look at the energy we’re bringing, guys. We’re winding down the time. It’s the final week. You don’t see us slowing down or stopping. If anything, seems like we’re actually having more problems and getting a little bit more amped up than we’ve ever been. We only know one way to go. I only know one gear. I only know one gear. Third, third and a half. Shifting from third to fourth. That’s the only gear I know. All right. By the way, I don’t shift well. There’s a lot of grinding. Anyway, here we go, ladies and gentlemen. For the uh fifth fifth time, what do I say? For the first time, for the last time this week, I don’t know, something like that. This is about some This about sums up my tenure. The end of a melody is not its goal. But nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end, it would not have reached its goal either. A parable from one Pride Rich Nei. Oh boy. Geez. Well, talk about ending on a talk about ending on a overrated note. We’ll be with that said, one of the all time one of the alltime great poets. We’ll be back again tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Mets basketball. It’s about contrasting the styles that we bring to the podcast. I think at times basketball

With rumors the San Antonio Spurs could be shopping the #2 pick in the upcoming draft, the Locked on Nets guys take a look at this situation from a Brooklyn perspective. Would they have the appetite to trade up and effectively take Dylan Harper? Do they even have enough to get it done?

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