Hardwood Knocks

SPOILER ALERT: The Brooklyn Nets are not going to be good next season. Crazy, we know. As much as they've done to revamp the roster, they still project to be one of the NBA's worst teams. But will they be the NBA's worst team? Definitely not. Maybe. We think. After finishing 2016-17 with just 20 wins, the Nets have undergone a quasi-transformation. They traded Brook Lopez over the summer while taking on Timofey Mozgov's bloated deal in order to get D'Angelo Russell. They scooped up an extra two picks from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for eating the final two years on DeMarre Carroll's deal. They landed Allen Crabbe from the Portland Trail Blazers. They drafted Jarrett Allen. They are better. Much better Hell, they might even be better than that. A full year of a healthy Jeremy Lin and Caris LeVert, coupled with all their new additions, attached to a crappy Eastern Conference, could make for some surprising returns.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The Nets are still in the early stages of a thorough