Nets to Play Crucial Role This Offseason

The Brooklyn Nets may not be big players when it comes to how this season will shake out, but they could have a big role in the summer to dictate the foreseeable future in the league.

The Nets will no longer have Ben Simmons' massive contract on the books, giving them the most cap space of any team in the league, and ESPN writer Bobby Marks believes that will make Brooklyn a big player in the offseason.

"The offseason leads through Brooklyn," Bobby Marks writes.

"Not only are the Nets projected to have a league-high $60-plus million to sign free agents or acquire players in a trade, they also have four first-round picks in this year's draft.

"You have to be poised and position yourself to be able to have that opportunity," GM Sean Marks said in January. "We're going to give ourselves the best chance to do that. Now, on whom and when, that's TBD."

"In total, Brooklyn has 16 first-round picks in the next seven years -- 13 are tradable. They also have 17 second-rounders."

The Nets still have a lot of work to do, but their choices could serve as major dominoes in how the offseason turns out, which could then lead to some changes over the next several years in the league.