NEW YORK -- DeMarre Carroll asked a group of reporters to help the Brooklyn Nets. In the middle of his end-of-season media availability on Wednesday, the forward said that the Nets had to roll out the red carpet to recruit free agents. It would be a group effort, he said, involving coaches, players and, apparently, media. 

"Y'all got to put out good stuff," he said. 

It wasn't the proper venue for the lecture about the role of the Fourth Estate. Rather than explain that it is not their job to hype up the franchise, the assembled reporters laughed. Hey, at least Carroll was being transparent. 

One by one, Jarrett Allen, Jared Dudley, Ed Davis, Carroll, Spencer Dinwiddie, D'Angelo Russell and Caris LeVert took questions at Brooklyn's practice facility in Sunset Park. They did not address the team's defensive shortcomings in its first-round loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. If there was a theme, it was that the season was a smashing success and the next one should be even better, especially if top-tier free agents give the Nets a proper look. 

Dudley talked up the 30-person training staff, coach Kenny Atkinson's attention to detail and the training center. Dinwiddie raved about the culture, the nutritionist and the regular soft-tissue massages. Russell, the 23-year-old All-Star who will be a free agent himself in July, said that he "definitely" wants to return and thinks the team can do something special. 

"I've been in two other places in my tenure in the league," Dinwiddie said. "This is a fairy-tale experience, man. They really care about you. It's easy to come to work every day. It's a joy to come to work every day."

During the season, Brooklyn was one of the league's most endearing overachievers. Now it is one of its most fascinating free-agent destinations. For the last few months, any bigger-picture conversation about the Nets has inevitably landed on one crucial question: How connected are those two stories?

This is the rare team that has been celebrated for winning 42 regular-season games instead of tanking. Sean Marks' front office has drafted well, signed diamonds in the rough and traded for an All-Star. Atkinson has established a modern style of play and presided over a widely respected player development staff. It has only been three seasons since they began the arduous process of trying to build something sustainable despite franchise-crippling draft-pick debt. The playoffs came earlier than expected, but it's unclear if the young core, the postseason appearance and the good vibes that management has consciously tried to create -- Dudley and Dinwiddie both mentioned that the team sent flowers to their parents -- will pay off this summer.

"Free agents would definitely consider it," Dudley said. "Now, them picking it? That's where, you know, maybe Brooklyn has a little bit more to do."

Dudley noted that, regardless of what happens in the summer, the Nets can improve thanks to their youth. This is the luxury that comes with finding a way to compete while maintaining financial flexibility -- unlike the New York Knicks, they have not set themselves up for a boom-or-bust offseason. Left unsaid, though, was that Brooklyn won't necessarily be flexible for that much longer. There real challenges in front of Marks, including:

  • Russell's contract negotiations. A five-year max from Brooklyn would be worth $158 million, and competitors can offer four years and $117 million. Is the team willing to play hardball if Russell insists on getting every dollar he can? How do the Nets even value him? Russell's supporters point to his ability to take over games and his maturation since leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, while his detractors point to his inefficiency and less-than-stellar defense. 
  • LeVert's potential extension. The wing was easily Brooklyn's best player against Philadelphia, and he said that he "would love to play here as long as possible." The front office could lock him up now, but that would reduce its 2020 cap room.
  • The free agency of the veterans. Davis, Dudley and Carroll are all free agents, and there's no guarantee they'll still be on the market once the big names have made their decisions. This might not seem like a big deal, but the Nets wouldn't have made the playoffs without their steadying influence on and off the court.
  • The matter of Allen Crabbe, who will surely pick up his $18.5 million player option. If the Nets are serious about making upgrades, they could create cap room by stretching that contract or attaching an asset to facilitate a salary dump.

Before coaching his first playoff game at Barclays Center, Atkinson told Marks that he thought it would happen five or six years into the rebuild, not three. Indeed, Brooklyn deserves the praise it has received for getting good this quickly. As difficult as it has been, though, going from good to great is much harder. The Nets are not entitled to stars because they've done things "the right way," and there is a long list of teams that have made a leap only to regress the next season. The fact that Brooklyn is less brash about its aspirations than the team that plays across the river does not mean that it is not under pressure to improve. No one knows what the Nets' roster will look like in July, but all of the players singing the organization's praises understand that it will be different.