Three Nets veterans that didn’t exactly fit their rebuilding timeline drew varying degrees of interest at this season’s trade deadline.
Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale were dealt away in February.
Dorian Finney-Smith could follow them out the door this offseason.
While Finney-Smith is a steady locker room presence and a solid defensive player, he’s also the oldest player on the roster at 31 and would be valuable to a contender. That makes him a luxury the retooling Nets might not be in a position to keep. For a team that went just 32-50, he’s an asset they can ill afford not to cash in on.
There is a feeling around the league that Finney-Smith could be traded over the summer. The perception that several Nets won’t be back — and that he’s prime among them — is a situation that Finney-Smith is well aware of.
It’s a business part of the sport that he’s familiar with, and at peace with.
“Yeah, it’s part of it,” Finney-Smith said last month. “We didn’t perform as well as we thought; and most times, teams make changes. This is the NBA, they’re trying to get better, so they’re gonna do what’s best for the organization. I don’t think [in all my] years in the league I had the same team two years in a row. Even if you win, teams still make moves, so I can only imagine how this summer’s gonna be.
“But we got a lot of young guys. I know we’ve got guys that are 21 and under, so they know most likely they ain’t going nowhere. But it’s been a joy. Everybody in this locker room likes each other. Just talking to these guys, they just say they never had a group of guys that sit around and talk as much as we do, because like I said, we have a great locker room. It just didn’t translate to the court as well as we wanted it to.”
Brooklyn rejected an offer of two first-round draft picks for Finney-Smith before last season’s deadline, a highly-placed source confirmed to The Post. Their offers for the forward were lower this season, but general manager Sean Marks once again opted to hold onto him, while dealing O’Neale to Phoenix and Dinwiddie to Toronto for Dennis Schröder in a point guard swap.
Finney-Smith is the last man standing of that earlier veteran trio. But there is a sentiment among several league executives that spoke with The Post that could change.
“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Finney-Smith admitted. “It’s the NBA; nothing’s really promised you in the league, so we’ve got to try to appreciate all the experiences that you have and just try to find a joy in the game and try to get lost in that and not the business of it.”
Priced to move
The business involves finances. Finney-Smith is set to make $14.9 million next season and has a player option for $15.4 million the following year, a solid contract that is viewed in league circles as easily movable.
The nine-year swing forward had already been competing with veteran Cam Johnson for playing time, and the latter just started a hefty (bloated?) contract. New coach Jordi Fernandez’s assumed youth movement and the need to find playing time for 2023 first-rounder Noah Clowney — who emerged late in this rookie season as a defensive partner for center Nic Claxton — is also a consideration.
As Finney-Smith alluded to, the business also involves change.
The Post had already reported the Bucks, Kings, Mavericks, Suns and Thunder as having shown interest earlier this season. Forbes noted this week that all of the above could circle back as the draft approaches, as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies and L.A. Lakers.
This year’s NBA Draft will be split over two days, the first round on June 26 at Barclays Center and the second round held the next day in Manhattan.
With Brooklyn missing the postseason for the first time since 2017-18, Finney-Smith makes more sense for a contender. The Nets aren’t one.
“Personally, obviously I wanted to make the playoffs. It’s been a while since I didn’t make the playoffs, so a little disappointed with that,” Finney-Smith said. “But I’m just ready for the offseason, because I started the year off playing well, but I had an up-and-down season personally. So that’s all I can work on is myself. I’ve got to do better, too.”
Room for improvement
This season Finney-Smith averaged 8.5 points and 4.7 rebounds on .421/.348/.717 shooting splits. It was something of a bounce-back from his poor second half last season after arriving from Dallas in the Kyrie Irving deal; but it still paled in comparison to the prior two 3-and-D archetype years he put up in Dallas.
Finney-Smith had averaged 9.8 points and a career-high 5.4 rebounds on .472/.394/.756 shooting in 2020-21 for the Mavericks, and his encore was a career-high 11.0 points and 4.7 boards on .471/.395/.675 splits en route to the Western Conference Finals the next season. He aims to return to that kind of shooting next season, approaching 40 percent from 3-point range.
“Now that I’ve been shooting the ball well for a while now, I’ve got to get my shots off a lot quicker than I usually have,” Finney-Smith said. “I’m shooting more above-the-break 3s. So I just want to obviously do better playing out of close-outs, putting the ball on the ground.
“You know, I feel like I’ve been getting to the front of the rim a lot this year, even making the drop-off pass to [Claxton] or whatever big is in there. Just continue to work on my game. I feel like I’ve been driving the ball a lot more this year than I usually have, and [can] get a little bit more consistent on my shooting.”
It remains to be seen if he can get back his old consistency — and if he’ll do it in a Brooklyn uniform.
