Nets' Sean Marks addresses staying pat at the NBA trade deadline

The Brooklyn Nets surprised most of the NBA earlier this month when they stood pat at the trade deadline instead of trading players like Cam Johnson amidst the franchise's rebuild. There hasn't been much reporting over what led to general manager Sean Marks and the rest of Brooklyn's front office to not make more moves, but Marks himself addressed why the team operated the way it did.

"We're enjoying seeing some of these young guys develop and this roster continue to grow under (head coach) Jordi's (Fernandez) tutelage so I think for us it was like, just stay pat," Marks said (around the 8:35 mark of the below video) during the Nets' latest edition of The Bridge, where the team gives behind the scenes footage of certain moments in the organization. Marks was speaking to why Brooklyn decided to remain pat instead of continuing to deal away some of the veterans that remain on the roster.

"We haven't seen enough of some guys because they've been hurt and then, we made a few of our moves early on in the year," Marks continued. Prior to this season's Feb. 6 trade deadline, the Nets only completed two trades: trading Dennis Schroder and a second-round pick to the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 15 in exchange for Reece Beekman, De'Anthony Melton, and three second-round picks and dealing Dorian Finney-Smith, along with Shake Milton, to the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 29 for Maxwell Lewis, D'Angelo Russell, and three second-round picks.

With Brooklyn coming into the season after trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for a bevy of first-round picks while also completing a trade with the Houston Rockets so that Brooklyn could get some of its own draft capital back, many expected the Nets to dive fully into being as bad as possible with the hopes of drafting their next superstar, maybe some like Duke forward Cooper Flagg. However, Marks explains why Johnson was not one of the players that the team wanted to part with at the deadline.

"With Cam, there was a lot of interest in him, like there was a lot of interest in a lot of our guys," Marks explained. "But, we like Cam and I think Cam fits multiple different builds that we're doing. He's a voice of reason, he's well respected within that locker room, he's a pro's pro. If people can learn from somebody, learn from Cam Johnson. That's a great guy to pick up habits from."