Anthony Bennett would prefer you not watch the Nets

You can’t blame Anthony Bennett for being honest.

The Brooklyn Nets have been a dumpster fire of a team almost since before the ink was dry on the now-infamous deal that sent Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry to Brooklyn in 2013. When Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov said the Basketball Gods were “smiling on the Nets”, I don’t think he realized that it was a smirk they couldn’t keep hidden when considering what they knew about the next five years.

Anthony, who is suiting up for a last-ditch attempt to revive his career on the only team with so little to lose it's willing to give him a shot, would prefer you didn't watch what comes of it.


Sure, this was an out-take, and the Nets PR people could have made sure this take never saw the light of day. It did, though, which makes you wonder if it's just more incompetence, or a Freudian slip at several levels of the organization simultaneously.

Somehow, the Nets mortgaged their future in a way so stupid, it was kind of clever in its stupidity. They effectively used as close to a loophole in the Stepien Rule (a collective bargaining agreement clause designed to prevent teams from...well, doing really stupid things like giving away all their draft picks for multiple years) as can be had for what most people who weren’t wearing green-tinted glasses (and, perhaps, Billy King) could see had a maximum shelf-life of at best three years.


It turned out to be less than one, if we’re being honest, and what, on paper, looked like one of the more star-powered lineups is now reduced to a shell of an NBA team. Currently, the roster is highlighted by a center who has spent a quarter of his eight years in the league injured at least three-fourths of the season (Brook Lopez), a pair backup point guards (Jeremy Lin and Greivis Vasquez), a pair of rotation forwards (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who might have a future, and Luis Scola, who might still have legs), arguably the worst bust in recent draft history in Bennett, and...well, I’m sure one or two of the rest might actually still be in the league in two years.

Maybe.

No complaints are coming out of Boston, however. Sorry, Anthony - our eyes are going to be on Brooklyn all year, and for all the wrong reasons, at least from your perspective. We appreciate your honesty, though - Boston fans are probably the only ones in the NBA who want to see how this hot mess plays out.



Possible future Nets mascot photo via http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/
Follow Justin at @justinquinnn
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