Bud's eight figure per year contract with Suns shows It was too costly for Nets

 The Brooklyn Nets are a big market team and were a free agent and trade destination going back only a couple of seasons.

Sean Marks opened up the checkbook to sign both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to max deals and he emptied the draft cupboard to acquire James Harden. 

Marks, at the request of both of his stars, fired multiple coaches, eating dead salary in all instances. 

Joe Tsai and the Nets hiked season ticket prices by an average of $144 per ticket in the 2022 season, even after trading away James Harden. 

Reportedly, 30 percent of season ticket holders walked away the following season. Then, both Irving and Durant skipped town. 

Barclays Center attendance figures have been rock solid, but one look around the arena and it's clear it's filled with more tourists, casual NBA fans and opposing fans, than Nets fans.

This was the same criticism the Nets faced when playing at the Meadowlands without any mass transit options and outside of New York City.

The Brooklyn Nets are facing an identity crisis and there was one proven head coach with championship experience that could have turned things around in short order. 

That man, Mike Budenholzer, was among the finalists for the Nets job along with Jordi Fernandez and Kevin Young. Ultimately, the Nets financial situation- money tied up in dead contracts and players that don't play in the case of Ben Simmons- precluded them from signing Budenholzer. 

The former Milwaukee Bucks head man received a 5-year, $50 million-plus dollar deal to try to figure out the mess in Phoenix with Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Devin Booker. 

Brooklyn took a shot in the dark with a heralded assistant coach with more questions than answers. 

While Budenholzer was head and shoulders above any candidate on the free agent coaching market, it became clear that Tsai was unwilling to dole out an eight figure per year payday given the mess that Brooklyn's former superstars left behind. In fact, Tsai is finalizing a minority sale to members of the Koch family for up to a 15 percent stake in the club with no clear path to majority ownership at this point.

If one thing is clear from the history of the Nets, the nomadic franchise with a rotating carousel of owners, anything is possible as far as ownership changes are concerned and relocation.