How Far Can Nets Go? ‘I Don’t Think We Know Our Ceiling’

The Nets may not be a title contender but they aren’t rebuilding, either.

“I don’t think, as a group, we know our ceiling,” guard Spencer Dinwiddie said, via Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “Knowing that we don’t have our (own first-round) picks, obviously we’re not going to tank. No team that’s trying to be competitive wants to be in the play-in, so I’d say by process of elimination, that’s where you want to start. As high as we can take it, we want to take it.

“… We’re young in terms of our depth, but the people that are going to play are 30, 27, 28. So we’re in a winning position, not necessarily, obviously, a championship position like we were with the superstars. So it’s somewhere in the middle. But we definitely have a lot of youth in terms of our depth, and I think it’s fun to build culture and watch guys grow.”

The Nets went just 13-15 after the trade deadline, but as Lewis wrote, a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference could be within reach. The likes of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Dinwiddie and perhaps a reborn Ben Simmons offer reasons for hope. The same can be said of the underrated coaching of Jacque Vaughn.

“We’re young in terms of our depth, but the people that are going to play are 30, 27, 28. So we’re in a winning position, not necessarily, obviously, a championship position like we were with the superstars,” Dinwiddie said. “So it’s somewhere in the middle. But we definitely have a lot of youth in terms of our depth, and I think it’s fun to build culture and watch guys grow.”