The Brooklyn Nets Could Control the NBA Trade Market

The NBA apron era has been a blessing and a curse. It's made the league much more competitive in recent years, though smaller market teams may end up at a disadvantage since ownership may not be willing to exceed the luxury tax to keep a championship team together.

Because of that, it's become more important now than ever for teams to have a ton of trade assets at their disposal. Having said that, the Brooklyn Nets could control the NBA trade market, as they're ranked as the team with the best trade assets, Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes writes.

The Nets have nine tradable first-round picks and 19 tradable second-round picks, which could certainly help them be active in the trade market. That could certainly be useful if a team needs to part with an All-NBA caliber player to avoid paying the league a pretty penny.

The Nets could also benefit from the NBA's new anti-tanking rules, which incentivize poorly constructed teams to win games rather than race towards the bottom of the standings.

Of course, Nets fans will want the team to go all in on a big fish. Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are highly unlikely to be moved any time soon, but if things go south with the Minnesota Timberwolves, perhaps Anthony Edwards could become available as soon as next offseason.

That's obviously a dream scenario and the Nets cannot plan their entire future on a hypothetical situation. Even if that trade doesn't come to light, there are plenty of other stars across the league who can become available at a minute's notice.

The New York Knicks were able to grab Karl-Anthony Towns for pennies on the dollar because the Timberwolves found themselves in the dreaded second apron. That move helped the Knicks get to their first NBA Finals in 27 years.

The Nets first need to build their team the right way, which will include them needing to draft the right guys and finding young players and free agents with untapped potential.

Once that team is built, they too could find themselves in a strong position to make a play for a star, who could be the finishing piece of a championship-winning team, that suddenly finds itself available.

Even though they also benefit from playing in the league's biggest market, the Nets have proven once before that building the right infrastructure could attract superstars to play for their team.

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