And really the Nets are screwed for longer than five years, it may take 10 years to dig themselves out if this huge hole.
I disagree, and here is why:
They have a legitimate NBA All-Star quality center in Brook Lopez. They also got a fairly good return for KG in Thad Young. Those two are starter-quality players on most NBA teams.
The cap is exploding. They have almost nothing in terms of long term salary. Lopez is it. They can VERY easily overpay a few mid-tier Free Agents, put them with Lopez and Young, and have a credible starting 5. They will still be flexible with salary even if the drastically overpay guys to return to respectability.
And even if they don't want to do that...Young and Lopez can net them draft picks or young players in trades.
They have a first round pick next year, at least, and they can very easily get back to the middle of the pack in the NBA with some free agent signings. I wouldn't bank on that 2018 being anything close to what we got this year.
Losing their pick this year sucked for them, but that was their fault for sucking. In all honesty there was no way they were prying Pierce, Garnett and sending crap contracts back to Boston without giving up at least one unprotected 1st rounder. It just so happened that Billy King made a terrible coaching hire for that team, the chemistry exploded, and Williams submarined their franchise. If there is one thing you can criticize Billy King for, it's Deron Williams. That guy is a loser.
We got lucky. There is no question about that. Would we be singing the same tune if KG and Pierce helped Brooklyn make the NBA Finals two years in a row?