Why The Brooklyn Nets Do The Deal 

The Nets aren’t strictly jettisoning Simmons for his non-shooting here. If they want Bam Adebayo, they have to move him. 

After all, the collective bargaining agreement disallows a team from acquiring a player on a max rookie contract extension if they already have such a player. Given that both Adebayo and Simmons are on such deals, the Nets need to move one in order to land the other. 

With that said, given Simmons’ limitations, they won’t mind doing so. The Nets shouldn’t rush to do this deal right now – they ought to see if their season improves first. On the other hand, if it doesn’t, this trade offers them an opportunity to reset. 

Moreover, it’s a quality reset. The Nets don’t own their own draft pick outright until 2028 – they may prefer to avoid bottoming out for that reason.

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Bringing in Adebayo keeps them competitive, and they’re still landing draft assets in the process.

Should the Heat give all of that up just to land Durant?