Just like a year ago, the Nets enter free agency with a huge cache of salary cap space. But this time they won’t be using it to get future assets, but to get better now.
With their tanking hopefully behind them, Brooklyn will at least try to compete this season. While the past two years have been about taking salary dumps to get draft picks, now they have every intention of improving the roster.
League sources told The Post that the Nets are more likely to use the space in trades than chasing free agents, and cap experts Bobby Marks of ESPN and Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron agreed that’s where the value is. The Nets have shown interest in New Orleans’ Trey Murphy III and Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace, and there was even a report linking them to Boston’s Jaylen Brown.
Nets GM Sean Marks’ first step was the trade for Julius Randle, which netted them not only a better player than the departing Nic Claxton, but a second first-round pick in last week’s draft.