Everybody inside and outside the Brooklyn Nets organization knows what the assignment is. To compete on a game-by-game basis, but not in the end-of-year standings. To find “the next Nets,” as Sean Marks put it on September 26, rightfully implying that even Brooklyn’s present is about its future.
That’s why the Nets traded for control of their next two NBA Drafts and a whole host of other team’s picks. That’s why Mikal Bridges doesn’t have to commute over the East River anymore, and why Jordi Fernández is the new head coach.
But Wednesday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks was the start of a new season, and there’s nothing quite like the optimism of Opening Night, no matter what that optimism means.