First LeBron James said no to the New Jersey Nets, followed by Carmelo Anthony. Then Dwight Howard opted back in down in Orlando, and it appears Deron Williams can’t get out of there fast enough either. So what’s next for the re-branded Brooklyn Nets as they make their way to home of Biggie Smalls and owner Jay-Z next season? How about Kevin Garnett and Ersan Ilyasova.
This according to The NY Daily News:
Not that the Nets haven’t been thinking about backup plans to striking gold in the draft lottery. According to multiple sources, the Nets – who will have roughly $8 million to work with this summer after renouncing the rights to Kris Humphries — are targeting power forwards Kevin Garnett (restricted) and Ersan Ilyasova (unrestricted) in free agency.
Ryan Anderson (restricted) is the other top power forward available – and would certainly be a welcomed upgrade — but the Nets want a stronger rebounder to play alongside Brook Lopez.
Garnett, 36, who is reportedly contemplating retirement, is averaging 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds. Ilyasova, who scored 29 points with 25 rebounds against the Nets in February, is averaging 12.4 points and 8.7 rebounds in his fourth season with the Bucks.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with investing some money in Ersan this summer. Ilyasova has certainly had some monster games, and I think he’s a solid young player that will command a significant amount of both money and attention this off-season. He’s an upgrade over Humphries for sure, and the Nets are a better team by adding the Ersan without completely breaking the bank to do so. So I’ll give them that one.
But KG isn’t the answer in Brooklyn. I’m not saying Garnett is completely done, because he probably isn’t. But the Nets need to kick that thing off out there with a young star player who’s going to be around for a little while. Besides that, why would Kevin want to play with a bad team for the last couple years of his career? Makes no sense to me.
