The signature move of Sean Marks’ three-year tenure as Nets GM was his June 2017 trade for D’Angelo Russell. He gave up the franchise’s leading scorer and most popular player in Brook Lopez, took on Timofey Mozgov’s albatross of a contract and after some back-and-forth agreed to give up the 27th pick in that year’s draft, which turned in Kyle Kuzma.
Internally, at the time, the Nets saw the move as “transformative.” Marks had a ton of faith in DLo’s potential and now that the deal is paying off, with DLo an All-Star—and the second youngest to boot, Mark is proudly talking up his point guard’s development.