The Nets need to blow up their team

While the Nets need an upgrade at point guard, there’s no reason to think this team is one player away from contention. Or even respectability. After a 13-10 start, they’ve dropped 14 of their last 17 games to drop to 11th in the Eastern Conference.

That 3-14 stretch is even worse than it looks since two of the wins came against the hapless Detroit Pistons.

Brooklyn’s owner and general manager have insisted they don’t want to rebuild, and they have a few reasons for that. One is the team's location in New York City, where fans won't see a losing team, especially with the Knicks doing well.

The Nets also don’t control their own first-round pick until 2028, thanks to the disastrous James Harden deal. Houston owns Brooklyn’s first-round pick in 2024 and 2026, plus the right to swap first-rounders in 2025 and 2027. Brooklyn can’t tank because losing would only give the Rockets a better pick.

That shouldn’t matter. Whether the Rockets get the No. 14 pick or the No. 1 pick, those picks are gone. It might be embarrassing, especially after losing lottery picks to the Boston Celtics in a similarly bad trade last decade, but it doesn’t affect Brooklyn’s team.

A team that right now is simply not good enough to even make the play-in. To seal picks for Murray now would be to repeat the same Nets mistakes they keep making: Win-now moves for a team that wasn’t ready to win.

Instead of making moves for Murray, the Nets need to test the market for their own players like Nic Claxton or Dorian Finney-Smith. They should also consider trading Mikal Bridges, who is an excellent player, but clearly not a No. 1 option for a playoff team.

Brooklyn can’t undo the Harden trade. But it can keep from compounding its mistake by giving up even more draft capital for a team that’s going nowhere.