1 Nets player in danger of losing starting job in 2024-25 training camp

09/20/2024 10:53 AM

The past one and a half seasons have been tough for the Brooklyn Nets organization. Just as the Nets were hitting their stride in the post-James Harden era, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving decided to bail on the team, setting them on a downward spiral. The organization, after one year of trying to remain semi-competitive with their Mikal Bridges-led core, decided to face the music and embrace a rebuild.

They traded Bridges in a deal that allowed them to retrieve the first-round picks that they gave up in the James Harden trade. The Nets can now rebuild properly as a result. With the winner of next year’s draft sweepstakes getting Cooper Flagg, there is no better time for Brooklyn to bottom out.

Nevertheless, their goal to get the best possible lottery odds should not preclude them from prioritizing the development of a few key players. Perhaps they could also help rehabilitate the value of some of their players, which would then allow them to gather more draft assets in preparation for the long rebuilding process that lies ahead.

It will be interesting to monitor the Nets’ position battles heading into training camp. While the spots of some players in the starting lineup are safe, head coach Jordi Fernandez could very well give the other starting spots based on merit earned in preseason. With that said, here are a few players who may find it difficult to earn a starting spot for the upcoming campaign — including the one player who is most likely not to make it.

Analyzing the Nets’ potential 2024-25 starting lineup

This is the question the Nets will have to answer for next season. The only two starters who should be safe from any sort of demotion are Cam Thomas and Nicolas Claxton, both of whom should play crucial roles in keeping the team a bit respectable next season.

With Mikal Bridges gone, there is at least one other opening in the starting lineup that will make Fernandez’s decision easier. But the players likely to start for the team on the wing are Dorian Finney-Smith and Cameron Johnson, two of the main pieces that remain on the roster coming from the Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant trades. Finney-Smith started 56 games last season, while Johnson started 47. Both figure to be major parts of the team’s rotation, if only for them to continue building up their trade value.

Finney-Smith and Johnson did lose their starting spots for a few games last season, but the Nets don’t exactly have much better options to start on the wing for the upcoming season. Bojan Bogdanovic, the veteran piece they received from the New York Knicks in the Bridges trade, could start, but he’s 35 years of age, and is much worse defensively than Finney-Smith is. His offense would come in handy off the bench, especially with Cam Thomas hoarding touches in the first unit.

This leaves the other guard spot up for grabs. The most likely candidate to start alongside Thomas in the backcourt is Dennis Schroder, but the impending return of the Nets’ highest-paid player might end up complicating matters.

Dennis Schroder might end up losing his starting spot to Ben Simmons

Dennis Schroder started 25 of 29 games for the Nets following the midseason trade that sent him from the Toronto Raptors to Brooklyn. Schroder played well in a Nets uniform, averaging 14.6 points and 6.0 assists on 42.4 percent shooting from the field and 41.2 percent shooting from deep.

Schroder was a major upgrade over Spencer Dinwiddie, and his play to end last season certainly makes him worthy of a starting spot on this Nets team. He also had a solid showing for Germany in the 2024 Paris Olympics, averaging 17.2 points and 7.5 assists on 46/39/90 shooting splits, and Jordi Fernandez, being the head coach of Team Canada, knows full well how good of a player Schroder is.

However, Ben Simmons appears to be on his way back from an injury-riddled 2023-24 campaign. It might be difficult to believe any hype campaigns surrounding Simmons given how disappointing he has been over the past three seasons, but he is only 28 years of age, and perhaps this is the year that he puts his back injuries completely in the rearview mirror.

Simmons started in 80 percent of the games he played in last season, and considering his history as an All-NBA, All-Defensive Team-caliber player, believing in his upside is very much warranted — especially when he’s the team’s highest-paid player.

If Simmons is healthy, he could very well be in line for a starting job, which could come at the expense of either Finney-Smith or Johnson. But considering basketball fit, Schroder could end up being the odd man out in this scenario.

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