The Brooklyn Nets absolutely cannot wait for this miserable season to be over.
According to a report by Devin Kharpertian of YES Network on Sunday, the team has decided to shut down frontcourt duo Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young for the remainder of the year.
Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young will be shut down for the season.
— devin kharpertian (@uuords) April 3, 2016
Lopez, 28, finishes the season with averages of 20.6 points per game and 7.8 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Young, 27, concludes it with averages of 15.1 points per game and 9.0 rebounds per game. The tandem proved by far to be the two best players on Brooklyn this year.
With just five games remaining in the regular season, it may come as a surprise that the stinky 21-56 Nets took this long to make the shutdown official. But seeing as tanking wasn’t an option since they owe the Celtics an unprotected first-round draft pick this summer, there was little incentive for Brooklyn either way.
This news could serve as a positive development for Boston for the purposes of that pick since the Nets currently have the fourth-worst record in the league and are now just half a game ahead of Phoenix in the standings.
As for Brooklyn, the focus is now fully on the coming offseason as newly hired front office executives Sean Marks and Trajan Langdon will look to swing the fortunes of what has become perhaps the most dreadful franchise in the entire Association. It won’t be easy with an aging, mismatched roster and a dangerous lack of meaningful assets, but there’s nowhere else for the Nets to go from here but up.
Image Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
