It has been made clear by the front office and General Manager Sean Marks that the Nets intend to star hunt over the next few years in an attempt to put the Nets back into contention. This has caused a massive debate amongst Nets fans on whether or not this is the correct strategy that will yield championship results. If there is anything that this post-season has proven, you cannot trade your way to a championship. In the Western Conference, several teams that were favored to compete for the title this year, the Suns, Clippers, & Lakers were eliminated in the 1st round. The teams that eliminated them, the Nuggets, Mavericks, & Timberwolves all have one thing in common: they developed their main cores via the draft.
Despite many fans arguing that the draft doesn’t work or that the draft doesn’t guarantee success, the vast majority of teams that have won the championship or have had long-term sustainable success have drafted at least one of their top 2 players. The Mavericks drafted Luka Doncic, the Wolves drafted Anthony Edwards & Karl-Anthony Towns, and the Nuggets drafted Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, & Michael Porter Jr. The benefit of drafting your stars allows you to spend several years building around them, whereas in the case of star hunting, a team has 3-4 years at most to have success before you risk the star becoming disgruntled. Not only that, but because of Restricted Free Agency, you can keep these players for up to 9 seasons before losing them in free agency.
The teams that many NBA fans expected to make deep playoff runs, the Suns, Clippers, & Lakers all fell before teams that were able to build through the draft while maintaining depth are more evidence that you simply cannot stack talent and expect to contend in the modern NBA. The reason why these teams didn’t have depth is because they traded them all away for more star power, depleting them of valuable role players. While these teams had regular season success, they were unable to compete with teams that had less talent due to their poor roster construction and lack of role players. Because all these teams traded their 1st round picks to acquire either some or most of their high-end talent, they were unable to make complimentary moves in order to support the stars. In the case of the Suns, they desperately need a Point Guard as well as a tall 3&D wing that can support the defense; however, because they traded all their picks in exchange for Kevin Durant & Bradley Beal, they can’t fill out their roster's biggest weaknesses.
Realistically, it is not possible for the Nets to trade for 2 All-Star caliber players while being able to maintain depth and 1st round picks in order to build a legitimate roster that can compete for the championship. Since 1980, out of the 44 teams that have won the championships, 42 of them did so by acquiring their best player via the draft or through free agency. The 2 exceptions being the 1983 Sixers, who were bought from the Nets for cash and no draft assets, and the 2019 Raptors who traded for Kawhi Leonard for pennies on the dollar due to Kawhi’s expiring contract and his injury history. It is unfortunate; however, it is time the Nets accept reality, you simply cannot trade for your best players in the NBA and still be able to make complimentary moves to build around that player. If the Nets cannot acquire a top 15 player in 2025 free agency, then they need to pivot to a rebuild.