For much of their season, the focus surrounding the Nets has been on who they might give up prior to the trade deadline, with the front office clearly keeping an eye more on the future than the present.
Now that the deadline is approaching, the players are aware that more moves could be on the way.
And more than ever, they know those moves can be wildly unpredictable in the wake of the Dallas-Lakers blockbuster that landed Luka Doncic in Los Angeles and Anthony Davis with the Mavericks.
“Shoot, Luka, I thought they were already building his statue,’’ Ziaire Williams said after Monday’s practice of his shock over the trade that reshaped the league, and especially the Western Conference. “Hey man, that’s the NBA for you. Nobody’s safe, and everybody has their own vision of what winning looks like. So yeah, you just never know.”
That’s especially true for players like Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe, who could depart prior to Thursday’s deadline, with teams — including the Lakers — looking for big men in the trade market.
“Ain’t nobody safe,” Sharpe said. “Luka Doncic, I never expected him to not be playing for the Mavs. It still doesn’t feel right, you know? It’s like Klay Thompson said, when LeBron [James] went to the Heat; you never expect him to leave the Cavaliers. But at the end of the day, it’s just business, though.”
For head coach Jordi Fernandez, the challenge is to try to keep players who might hear their names in the rumor mill focused on what’s in front of them, which for the Nets includes trying to win a third consecutive game for the first time since November when they host the Rockets on Tuesday at Barclays Center.
“You don’t want to give it too much attention, right?” Fernandez said of the potential trade talk. “But I tell the guys, anything they need, they can come and ask questions.”
He knows he’ll have to deal with it on a case-by-case basis.
“Everybody handles it in a different way,’’ Fernandez said. “I think after [Monday’s] practice, the energy was great, so I didn’t see anything different. I know that the majority of them may think about it, but let’s get through it together and see what happens.”
In the end, it’s up to the front office whether the team looks any different after Thursday’s deadline.
“We can control what we can control,’’ Fernandez said. “These are things you don’t have much control [over]. Keep doing your job, keep being positive, have good practice, get better, it’s all we can do.”
His players are listening.
“I feel like as a player, you should just be where your feet are,’’ Williams said. “It definitely could happen, but if you’re expecting it or nervous [about] if it’s gonna happen or not, it kind of just throws off your [mentality] and stuff.”
“Actually, for me, it’s easy to block out the noise,’’ Sharpe said. “You know, if I get the phone call, then I get the phone call. Other than that, it is what it is.”
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