Nets Improve Depth By Trading Kyrie Irving; Lacks One More Piece To Complete Title Hopes

The Brooklyn Nets decided to act on All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving's trade request and received a great package in return, but they may need to swing for one more deal to be seen as true title contenders.

The Dallas Mavericks offered a combination of Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first-rounder plus 2027 and 2029 second-round picks for the troubled guard and Markieff Morris–the latter for salary-matching purposes.

Brooklyn deciding to accept does one of two things for them.

Irving and the Nets finally get to move on from one another after the guard continued to battle controversy on and off the court for the past three seasons.

There was some success for Nets fans to be happy about, but the issues had simply become too much to stomach for them and relief has finally come in the form of a trade.

Second, and more importantly, is the fact that Kevin Durant gets a 12-man deep roster filled with players capable of complementing his skill set.

The projected depth chart for the Nets currently has Dinwiddie, Seth curry, Cam Thomas and Patty Mills manning the guard positions.

Finney-Smith, Royce O'Neale, T.J. Warren, Joe Harris and Yuta Watanabe are set to all share time as wings in different lineups.

However, the problem now, as it was in the offseason, is in the bigs department as they only have Nic Claxton and Ben Simmons manning the spot with sophomore Day'Ron Sharpe making an appearance here and there.

Nic Claxton has thrived under the guidance of head coach Jacque Vaughn and Simmons has been a mixed bag for the better part of his stint in Brooklyn.

Sharpe, while serviceable at times, still lacks the experience that a championship-caliber team needs to find success in the postseason.

It can be argued that the current roster is more than capable of putting up a fight in the Eastern Conference, but will surely struggle in a seven-game series against powerhouse teams like the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers.

The three teams mentioned all have strong-abled bodies manning the paint at all times.

Boston has Robert Williams and Al Horford. Milwaukee has Brook Lopez, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis. Philadelphia has Joel Embiid and Montrezl Harrell to throw against the Nets.

Claxton and Simmons cannot space the floor at all, and with the latter's reluctance to find the gas pedal on offense, it exacerbates the need for Durant to get some help down low.

Trade rumor mill-bound names like Jakob Poeltl, John Collins and even Myles Turner are definitely off the table because the Nets do not have enough assets to make a deal while remaining competitive this season.

The Nets may then opt to go after another team's bench piece like Naz Reid, Mo Bamba, Jarred Vanderbilt and Jalen Smith.

Vanderbilt in particular has garnered a ton of attention in the league for his strong play with the Minnesota Timberwolves during the absences of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert this season.

However, the Timberwolves think highly of him, and Reid by extension, and may cost the Nets a little bit more to pry him from Minnesota.

With that in mind, it may do the Nets well to explore trade deals with Bamba and Smith instead as the former may do better outside of Orlando while the latter is buried behind Aaron Nesmith and Oshae Brissett on the Pacers' depth chart.

The Nets did exceptionally well to convince the Mavericks to include Dinwiddie in the deal along with some help on the wings in the form of Finney-Smith, but their efforts may come to naught if they cannot find depth in the traditional center role.