Brooklyn Nets Reportedly Interested In A Pair Of Former NBA Champions
The Brooklyn Nets have dealt with a lot over the last couple of months given Kevin Durant’s trade request and rumors swirling about Kyrie Irving’s future, but both superstar players are committed to the team for the 2022-23 season.
After Kevin Durant, his business manager Rich Kleiman, met with Nets GM Sean Marks, head coach Steve Nash and owners Clara Wu Tsai and Joseph Tsai recently, all sides came to a mutual agreement to move forward. The following was released by the team on Tuesday.
Now inching closer to the start of training camp at the end of September, the Nets turn their attention to the 2022-23 season, a year in which they will once again be in the championship picture.
How good this team can be and whether or not all the drama from this offseason will carry over to the regular season are two major unknowns right now, but the team’s leadership truly believes that they can be a top-tier team in the NBA, which is why the remaining roster spots they have will be filled by capable, championship-worthy players.
Having 12 players with guaranteed contracts for the 2022-23 season and one having a partially-guaranteed deal, the Nets still have a couple of roster spots that they will be looking to fill.
Former All-Stars Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony have recently been speculated to be two targets for Brooklyn, but HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reported recently that a pair of former NBA champions in Tristan Thompson and Markieff Morris are more realistic targets for the Nets.
“The Nets are looking to add a veteran backup center,” Scotto writes. “One free-agent center to keep an eye on is Tristan Thompson, HoopsHype has learned. The Nets have also expressed exploratory interest in forward Markieff Morris, league sources told HoopsHype.”
Thompson recently played for the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls last season and he ended up playing in 57 games amongst the three teams. In total, the former 2016 champion averaged 6.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and shot 52.8% from the floor.
Always regarded as a strong rebounder on either end of the floor, Tristan Thompson could end up being a valuable addition for the Nets not only because they were middle-of-the-pack in rebounding during the 2021-22 season, but because Nicolas Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe are the only two centers on Brooklyn’s roster right now.
Adding a veteran, experienced champion like Thompson to the frontcourt gives the Nets more depth and more importantly, someone that can be a voice of reason for the two other young centers on this roster.
Markieff Morris played in just 17 games last season with the Miami Heat mainly due to a neck/back injury suffered in early November that kept him out nearly four months. Winning a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Morris has always been a hard-nosed defender and a stretch forward that is not afraid to take his shots from the perimeter.
For his career, Morris has shot 34.1% from three-point range and recently during the 2019-20 season, he shot 38.6% from three-point range.
An experienced forward who, like Thompson, has championship experience, Markieff Morris seems like another reasonable player for the Brooklyn Nets to possibly explore adding ahead of training camp.
Both Tristan Thompson and Markieff Morris remain unrestricted free agents that have received very little to no interest in free agency this offseason. It would be surprising if either player ended up seeing more than a minimum contract offer ahead of the start of training camp from the Brooklyn Nets or any other team around the league.
