It was definitely an interesting night for the Brooklyn Nets during the 2016 NBA Draft. They traded away Thaddeus Young and ended up getting draft picks out of the deal which may or may not work out for them. Brooklyn needed to improve in a big way after a subpar year in 2015-16 but it would look like that they didn’t do that. This makes the Nets one of the losers of the NBA Draft. Their two picks don’t look like the solid players that the team could have needed alongside Brook Lopez.
With the No. 20 pick, Brooklyn selected Michigan’s Caris LeVert. LeVert is a first-round player but isn’t a very good defender which will need to be worked on if he wants to become a solid NBA player. He also has some health issues that probably sent him down the draft board quite a bit. The team’s second-round pick at No. 42 was Isaiah Whitehead who grew up in Brooklyn. Whitehead is a wild player who will need to be reined in but could become a good role player in time.
It was basically a one-man band with Lopez moving forward for the Nets. Hopefully LeVert and Whitehead can come in and do enough to help out Lopez with the scoring. Brooklyn may be starting at a lottery pick next season though with their current roster. It’s a sad state of affairs in the Big Apple right now with New York’s two basketball teams. The Nets will be looking to make things better as soon as they can but it likely won’t be this season.
NBA Draft 2016: How Did Brooklyn Nets Lose The Draft?
