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Nets fans should keep an eye on D’Angelo Russell for the rest of this regular season.
He might be the weather vane to reveal what the team plans this offseason.
Russell returned to the court — scoring 12 points and handing out four assists in 25 minutes — for Tuesday’s 127-113 loss in San Antonio after missing the prior five games with a sprained ankle.
It marked just the second time since his arrival three months ago that the Nets had their preferred backcourt, Russell and Cam Thomas, playing together.
Watching the pair not known for their defense fit into a team playing hard on that end of the court should be interesting.
But not nearly as interesting as what ends up happening with Russell.
Nobody can say with certainty what the Nets’ offseason plans are.
They’re likely not even set, with no idea where they’re drafting or who is available in trade.
But watching what happens with Russell can give some signs on whether they’re going big-game (and big-name) hunting, or extending the tank another year.
After shipping out point guard Dennis Schroder on Dec. 15 — the first day of the unofficial trading season — Brooklyn GM Sean Marks dealt Dorian Finney-Smith to the Lakers for Russell.
But they didn’t acquire Russell to replace Schroder’s pick-and-roll prowess, but because Russell has an expiring contract that fit into Finney-Smith’s, and Russell came with three second-round picks attached.
But Russell — whose 8.7 assists per 100 possessions with the Lakers were his worst since his rookie season — has handed out a dozen per 100 since joining the Nets, the best in his career by a huge margin.
With the ball in his hands and a leadership role, Russell is believed to have told those around him he wants to stay.
He scored 12 with four assists in Tuesday’s loss.
And despite the rebuild, the Nets keeping him around seems a lot more likely than it did when he first arrived three months ago.
Yes, the Nets have the most cap space in the league at over $60 million.
But what was once a loaded free agent class has seen superstars Anthony Davis, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard — and even standouts like Brandon Ingram, Lauri Markkanen, Rudy Gobert and Jamal Murray — come off the board with recent extensions.
Yes, Marks — who used to weaponize offer sheets in his first rebuild — could use cap space on restricted free agents like Jonathan Kuminga or Josh Giddey.
But the GM could kick the can down the road a year, extending the tank another season and punting his cap space into 2026.
If he does, one way is giving Russell a one-year deal, or a two-year contract with a team option.
With the Nets sitting on a trove of cap space almost as big as the rest of the league combined — Detroit is the only other team likely to have more than the mid-level exception — Russell’s suitors will be limited.
And if no star who the Nets intend to pursue becomes available this summer via trade — Giannis Antetokounmpo, LaMelo Ball, Trae Young, etc. — then a short-term reunion could make sense for both parties.
Tuesday marked Russell’s first game since Feb. 20.
He came in averaging 13.8 points and 5.8 assists for the Nets, and since arriving just after New Year’s, they were 8-9 with him, but a horrid 1-10 without him and his playmaking.
That includes dropping the previous four heading into the Spurs game.
But Brooklyn won the only game Russell and Thomas suited up together, a Jan. 2 victory at Milwaukee being one of their more impressive results.
Russell handed out his Nets season-high 12 assists in beating the Bucks.
But Thomas suffered a hamstring injury that kept him sidelined until last week, with the pair not sharing the floor until Tuesday night.
How Russell meshes with Thomas — a restricted free agent himself — over the rest of the season will be intriguing.
But not as intriguing as what Russell’s fate signals for the offseason.
