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Stein’s Latest: Nets, Giannis, Mexico City, Spurs

November 10th 2024 at 1:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets lost both games of their back-to-back set on Friday and Saturday, but they pushed the Celtics to overtime on Friday in Boston and took the undefeated Cavaliers down to the wire in Cleveland on Saturday.

Projected before the season to be the NBA’s worst team, Brooklyn has looked surprisingly competitive under new head coach Jordi Fernandez, winning four of its first 10 games and holding its own against a relatively tough schedule. Only two of the Nets’ losses have been by more than five points.

As Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack article, the Nets’ front office signaled during the summer by reacquiring control of their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks in a trade with Houston that they were expecting to finish firmly in the lottery. If they want to ensure the team has a shot at a franchise player in the ’25 draft, the front office may need to start making in-season deals sooner than expected, Stein notes.

According to Stein, Dennis Schröder, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Bojan Bogdanovic are the veterans mentioned most frequently by rival teams as Nets players they expect to be on the move by the February 6 trade deadline. All three are on manageable contracts (with cap hits below than $20MM) and could become unrestricted free agents in 2025. Schröder and Bogdanovic are on expiring deals, while Finney-Smith holds a player option for 2025/26.

Here’s more from Stein:

  • After writing last weekend about the “league-wide lusting” for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stein follows up to clarify that the league’s 29 non-Bucks teams understand the two-time MVP will only ever be made available if he pushes for a trade. That hasn’t happened, but several clubs have started planning for the possibility it might and have let Milwaukee know they’ll be ready to talk if and when the time comes, according to Stein.
  • Stein recently wrote about the idea of the NBA expanding to Mexico City and said he “just can’t see it happening.” In today’s Substack article, he says one “well-placed Mexico expert” warned him not to be so dismissive of the possibility, pointing out that the “immense financial opportunities” available in the country make it an idea the NBA won’t give up on easily. That source also pointed out that if the NBA realigns to four-team divisions, a Mexico City franchise would be well positioned to share a division with Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Still, Las Vegas and Seattle remain the presumptive frontrunners for the league’s next round of expansion, says Stein.
  • The Spurs turned to 37-year-old Mitch Johnson rather than former NBA head coach Brett Brown with Gregg Popovich recently forced to be away from the team due to a health issue. As Stein explains, that was always the plan in the event that Popovich had to miss time, since Brown prefers to remain in his current role that allows him to provide guidance to the team’s young players, young coaches, and video staffers. Brown’s focus, per Stein, is on “helping Johnson thrive” as acting head coach.
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