Markinson and the Year 3 vibe: Which way will they go?

This year is supposed to be different.

In 2016, Year 1 of the Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson – “Markinson” – era the expectation was that the Brooklyn Nets would probably be the worst team in the NBA, which was proven correct.

In 2017? Slight improvements were forecast. One year older, one year wiser, add D’Angelo Russell, maybe a healthy Jeremy Lin. Many fans and pundits had them in the high 20’s to low 30’s in wins. No Lin. Half a season of DLo and they finished with 28.

This time, Year 3, the Nets are another year older and wiser, but have shown competence, grit and progress since 2016. So now, with their own draft picks in-hand, along with an undetermined — but big— cache of cap space on…