Nets' cost cutting bodes well for Celtics
This may seem like a minor transaction since Brooklyn had been employing two assistant GM's (including Marks) this past season, as well as their GM Billy King, but it seems to be pointing to larger intentions from the team which could prove very beneficial for our Celtics.
It's believed Brooklyn ownership is now determined to cut costs across board and staff cuts are underway. Marks is well-respected in league.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 26, 2015
According to the Adrian Wojnarowski tweet above, those larger intentions are overall cost cutting. Shrinking your spending would seem to be an obvious idea when your team will pay $20.5 million in luxury tax this season, but this organization has been ignoring the seemingly obvious since it's inception. Cutting front office salaries alone won't be enough to minimize or avoid the tax though, and that is where it could get interesting if you're a Celtic fan.
Reports of Brooklyn shopping Joe Johnson and Jarret Jack are popping up, and going back to last season every transaction made by the Nets reduced salary. That's not exactly evidence they are necessarily trying to improve. Also, it will be near impossible for them to unload the Deron Williams contract on a willing taker, and the team has said that keeping both Brooke Lopez and Thadeus Young is a priority for the off season.
All these moves indicate that the Nets are trying to shed some salary, but not bottom out. They are banking that in the awful Eastern Conference they will be able to either get a little worse or tread water and still not be a lottery team. The Celtics own their 2016 first rounder regardless of where the Nets finish, but the prospect of missing the playoffs and not getting a lottery pick to help improve your team can not sound enticing to Nets fans or ownership.
Since Boston also has the option to swap first rounders in 2017 with Brooklyn, the Nets are in a really strange position. They are more hamstrung by luxury tax and salary cap issues than any other team, they aren't a very good basketball team, they need to spend money to improve their basketball team, if they get rid of talent to minimize spending they run the risk of being so bad that they end up a lottery team, only to not have a first round pick in the 2016 or 2017 drafts. They are also responsible for me having to type that last sentence. It just never ends with these guys.
Here's to hoping they try to ride that fine line and end up an absolute abomination, while Danny Ainge and the Celtics are reaping all the benefits.
Photo Credit: Winslow Townson - USA TODAY Sports
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