Do the Nets have any way of escaping mediocrity?

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You would've been forgiven for raising your eyebrows an inch or two when Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King used the first day of this summer's free-agency window to re-sign Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young to long-term deals worth a combined $114 million. Indeed, many did.

The Nets had just spent a season proving their core, as constructed, had a ceiling that topped out at "first-round fodder." Their culture appeared uninspired. Their play was plodding and predictable, and seemed a bad fit for the modern NBA. Where was the rationale in doubling down, for at least another three years, on one guy who's missed 160 games the past four seasons and whose career could be derailed by one more foot injury, and another with limited upside and no natural position?

After the initial surprise, though, the reality of the situation started to dawn: What else was Brooklyn supposed to do? Taking a stick of dynamite to a roster and bottoming out is the trendiest way for franchises to redefine themselves, but that route doesn't have anything to offer the Nets. They don't possess much in the way of young, promising talent to nurture or clear playing time for. They don't own the rights to their first-round draft pick until 2019 (the Boston Celtics own their 2016 and 2018 first-rounders outright, and have swap rights in 2017), owing to the disastrous 2013 offseason trade for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

So the Nets are stuck in the middling mud, with no clear means of escape. Young and Lopez, both 27, figure to be the team's best players for the foreseeable future. But they're not do-it-all stars that can drag Brooklyn's mismatched cast of declining vets and scrap-heap role players to anything beyond a low playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.

Still, inking the pair was perhaps the Nets' only sensible course of action given the circumstances. The salary cap is about to explode, and while Lopez and Young will account for close to half the cap in 2015-16, it'll be more like a third come 2016-17. Plus, with Joe Johnson's $25-million-a-year albatross coming off the books at season's end, the Nets should actually be quite lean going forward. After Lopez and Young, the biggest hits on the ledger beyond this season are Jarrett Jack's non-guaranteed $6.3 million for 2016-17, and the approximately $5.5 million they'll be paying a stretched-out Deron Williams until 2020.

But finding a productive use for their freed-up cap space is another matter. They'll try to sell themselves on the prospect of financial flexibility ahead of an enticing free-agent summer, and fielding a respectable team makes that more viable. But with tepid fan engagement, dismal TV ratings, negative locker-room buzz, and a track record of general malaise, it seems less than likely the Kevin Durants of the world will give Brooklyn anything more than a cursory glance.

The Nets did show they can find back roads to first-round picks this summer. Those roads, however, don't come without a toll. In order to pry away No. 23 pick Rondae Hollis-Jefferson from the Portland Trail Blazers, the Nets had to part with young center Mason Plumlee. Despite his positional overlap with Lopez, Plumlee was one of the few high-upside players the Nets had on their roster - not to mention a solid bit of insurance in the event Lopez's injury woes resurface.

That doesn't make the trade a bad one; Hollis-Jefferson has a chance to be really good, particularly at the defensive end, and the Nets' paucity of picks means they need to be planning with an eye on striking gold wherever possible. It will be hard for them to repeat that, though, given how few movable assets they have left.

After waiving Williams and letting Mirza Teletovic walk, the Nets filled in the margins with minimum-contract cast-offs like Andrea Bargnani, Thomas Robinson, and Wayne Ellington. Those are low-risk signings, but unless one of them dramatically and unexpectedly alters the course of his career - Robinson is the most viable candidate, given that he's only 24 and just three years removed from being the No. 5 overall draft pick - the Nets' roster will be as staid as any in the league.

When he bought the franchise in 2010, Mikhail Prokhorov brought plenty of tall talk, and backed it up almost immediately with evidence that he was prepared to open his wallet if it meant building a contending team. While the attempt was noble, it yielded few meaningful results, and left the Nets running an unprecedented deficit thanks to a massive luxury-tax bill and disappointing gate revenue.

With the Williams waiver, Brooklyn pulled off the minor miracle of sneaking under the tax, after owning the league's highest payroll to start the 2014-15 season. However, that move's most tangible short-term upshot will likely be making it easier for Prokhorov to find a buyer. He's been trying to unload the franchise ever since the Los Angeles Clippers sold for a record $2 billion, tipping the Russian billionaire off to the absurd profit he could turn by cashing out and saddling another owner with his mess.

That's great for Prokhorov, but it's unlikely to make the product the Nets put out this year any easier on the eyes.