And so ends a thrilling, controversial, chaotic, and baffling era in the NBA. Back in July 2019, Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks made a massive franchise-altering decision to ditch the humble but successful grassroots rebuild he’d embarked upon to that point…

Regardless of what you think he should do next, or whether you agree with what he’s done up until now... you’ve gotta admit that Sean Marks does not have an easy job.

That was not how it was supposed to go down. The Brooklyn Nets eliminated in a 4-0 sweep by the Boston Celtics, the only team to get swept in the first round of these NBA Playoffs

You’ll never catch Sean Marks sitting on his hands, that’s for sure. If there’s a favourable deal to be done then this fella is going to make it. With the Brooklyn Nets’ championship ambitions teetering after a horrid losing streak and…

No max contract free agents this time, was news for two years ago. No blockbuster trade on the way either, that was last season’s business. These days the job calls for a sneakily efficient series of transactions and, would you look at this...

It’s been five years since Sean Marks took the job as Brooklyn Nets general manager. Five long years as Buddy Guy sings. Five years since the Brooklyn Nets were considered the most hopeless team in the league.

The Brooklyn Nets have been on a few different sides of those various reflections in recent times and no doubt you’ve read plenty about all of those incarnations (hit the page tags).

The situation that the Brooklyn Nets find themselves in, the situation that it’s Sean Marks’ job to find a way out of, has been very well documented. That comes with the territory of the situation itself.

When the NBA Restart happens at the end of this month it’ll also mark thirteen months since the Brooklyn Nets scooped one of the most monumental days in the franchise’s history.

The Brooklyn Nets were undercover darlings of NBA culture by the end of last season. With no relevant draft picks and only a couple of players with any real trade value when Sean Marks took over as GM, the Nets somehow managed to go from rock bottom to the playoffs within four years and they did it through all the things that the basketball zeitgeist loves to see…

There’s a new King of Brooklyn folks, and his name is Sean Marks. Free agency honestly could not have gone better for the Brooklyn Nets as everything came together in perfect harmony, all those seeds that they began to plant in February 2016 when Sean Marks was announced as the new GM of the franchise have sprouted and grown and blossomed and now born fruit.

Everything until now has led up to this point. All the cheeky little trades, the massive ones too, all the salary dumps they took upon themselves, all the restricted free agent tricks, all the G-League reclamation projects and the draft picks, all the extra hours spent in the gym from the coaches and the players, all the late nights from Sean Marks and his crew in the front office.

Perspectives are a funny thing. While we’re all out here dissecting the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first round exit from the NBA playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets are getting widely praised for… a first round exit from the NBA playoffs.

When Sean Marks left the warm and nurturing bosom of the San Antonio Spurs, there was talk. Of course an NBA GM’s gig is one that would be almost impossible to turn down. But not every GM’s gig is like the rest and the job he inherited at the Nets provided a team left reeling from one of the worst trades the NBA has ever seen.

All of which has led us to this point and it’s a confusing crossroads as far as Sean Marks’ next move is concerned. All this forward momentum, even in the darkest times, but now they’re facing a bit of uncomfortable stasis.

Of course, Marksy being Marksy, he still managed to make a few moves both in terms of taking on chunky salary and picking up draftees. And it all began with a call from the Charlotte Hornets…

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Golden State Warriors won another championship and all that. Good for them, hopefully it’s their last for ages. Which… might not be as implausible as it seemed watching the Dubs thump the Cleveland Cavaliers in four.

The Nets rebuild has started from the ground up, as they all do. They refurbished the front office, hired a new coach and set about dealing away the players they had no use for and developing those that they did.