The Nets are one week away from decision day. Brooklyn players have seven more days — and three more games — to persuade their front office into action or inaction.
There will be some excitement and some anxiety that climaxes next Thursday, and the Nets’ locker room will try to ignore the rumors that fly leading up to the trade deadline.
“Unspoken really, nobody really want to talk about everybody’s situation,” Cam Thomas said before the Nets fell, 136-120, Wednesday to Kevin Durant’s Suns at Barclays Center. “Everybody reads stuff, but I think it’s [an] unspoken [thing]. Nobody talks about that kind of stuff.
“We’re just enjoying the moment that we have here and just playing together as a team. We playing well as a team. Everybody gets along, so we’re just enjoying the moment.”
The Nets (19-28) are a full game back of the Hawks for the final play-in spot, a precarious position to be in particularly without control of their first-round pick this year (which belongs to the Rockets as part of the original James Harden trade).
Lacking the most obvious motivation to tank, a sell-off would be a shock.
The Nets have shown no inclination toward a hard sell and, according to The Athletic, already have rejected a trade that would have sent Mikal Bridges out for a package of multiple first-round picks from the Rockets. By all reports, the Nets intend to continue to build around the talented, two-way wing.
“I just try to control what I can control,” Bridges said when asked if he envisions what the team will look like after the deadline, “and try to win as many games and play hard.”
They could subtract from their depth and likely not dip their playoff chances by much. Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale both will be free agents after this season. Dorian Finney-Smith is signed through at least next season, but he would be attractive on the trade front. Finney-Smith, a strong 3-and-D wing, would be a fit for plenty of teams who need a shutdown defender.
It is also possible the Nets do some selling and some buying. Among guards they have been linked to are the Hawks’ Dejounte Murray and former Net and current Laker D’Angelo Russell.
“In the league, people are going to get traded,” Bridges said, shrugging aside the deadline. “You just sit here and you watch.”
Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain) missed his second straight game.
Head coach Jacque Vaughn said he is “day to day.”
Bridges, who scored 21 points in the loss, knocked down 6-of-12 from deep and has made at least six treys three times in his past five games. His 3-point percentage is up to 36.9.
“Feel good,” Bridges said. “Feel like I can make every one, so just shooting them.”