The Nets and creative strategy go together like onions and strawberry ice cream. Yet, as the major league baseball trade deadline approaches, did the Brooklyn Nets — of all franchises — provide an imaginative blueprint?

To land D’Angelo Russell — the second overall pick in 2015 — the Nets not only gave the Lakers Brook Lopez and the 27th overall pick in 2017, but took on Timofey Mozgov and the three years at $48 million remaining on his contract.

The Lakers, to clear out salary-cap space for a free-agent run at Paul George next year, were willing to deal a big-potential young talent in Russell as the dowry for the Nets accepting Mozgov’s horrendous pact. The Nets, with salary cap room now, absorbed the bad money to gain access to the low-salary, high-ceiling possibility of Russell.

I have been wondering: Would MLB non-contenders take on bad contracts for access to better prospects, and would contenders give up those prospects to improve both their current roster and future financial situation? Some thoughts (totally manufactured by me) on how it could work:

1. Would the A’s take on Jacoby Ellsbury from the Yankees to get a package headed by Clint Frazier for Sonny Gray and Sean Doolittle?

Ellsbury has a complete no-trade clause. However, he is from Oregon, and the Yankees can paint a picture that with Frazier, Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, Aaron Judge and perhaps Dustin Fowler again next year, Ellsbury’s playing time is going, going …

Ellsbury is owed $68.4 million over the next three years (including a $5 million buyout for 2021), but the A’s showed they have payroll maneuverability by their willingness last offseason to offer roughly $25 million annually on a short-term deal to Edwin Encarnacion.

In this case, it would not be for a desirable veteran (Encarnacion). It would be incorporating some form of Mozgov (Ellsbury) to get Russell (Frazier), plus other prospects from the Yankees’ deep trove, such as, say, Jorge Mateo and Domingo Acevedo (remember, the Yankees have 40-man roster issues and can’t keep all their young talent).

The Yankees yearn to sink under the luxury-tax line for 2018, and the removal of Ellsbury would facilitate that. That is like another acquisition for the Yankees in this deal (cleaning up for a future Paul George).

Gray is flawed, perhaps not as good as he was in 2014-15, and injury-prone. But the Yankees could use him now and in the future, considering Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka are potential free agents. Doolittle also is injury-prone, but when healthy is a dominant lefty reliever under control on a reasonable deal through 2020.

You can make a case for the Cubs trying a similar deal with Eloy Jimenez in the Russell role and either Jason Heyward (six years at $147.5 million from 2018 to 2023, with the ability to opt out after next season) or Ben Zobrist (two years, $28 million) in the Mozgov role (both Heyward and Zobrist have limited no-trades).

2. Would the Padres take on Pablo Sandoval from the Red Sox to get a package headed by Rafael Devers or Jay Groome for Brad Hand and Yangervis Solarte?

The obvious hurdle: Boston felt deceived last July by the Padres hiding injury information about Drew Pomeranz. The Commissioner’s Office gave the Red Sox the right to rescind that trade. They did not. Nevertheless, the anger and mistrust lingers.

However, these teams recently have made two sizable trades — for Pomeranz and Craig Kimbrel. The Padres have become expert in taking on Mozgov-ian money to complete trades to better their long-term situation — most of their 2018 payroll commitment involves continuing to pay non-Padres Jedd Gyorko, Hector Olivera and James Shields.

The Padres have liked Sandoval in the past, but taking on his remaining two years at $41 million (including $5 million buyout for 2020) is accepting Mozgov to get Russell — in this case Devers or Groome, plus others.

Sandoval’s subtraction would give the Red Sox a chance to go under the luxury-tax threshold next year (an extra benefit). It removes a headache. Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has shown throughout his career he will sacrifice prospects to go for it now, and in the case of Hand and Solarte, he would be getting players who can be controlled at least through 2019. Hand has emerged as among the majors’ top relievers, and the Cubs and Indians demonstrated last trade deadline they would pony up huge prospects for a prime bullpen piece to push for a title. Dombrowski could be gun shy after yielding big pieces for setup men Carson Smith and Tyler Thornburg and getting no value from either yet due to injuries.

3. Would the Tigers take on Scott Kazmir from the Dodgers to get a package headed by Alex Verdugo for Justin Verlander and Justin Wilson?

The Dodgers might want the Tigers to accept even more bad money — a Kenta Maeda or Hyun-jin Ryu or perhaps even Brandon McCarthy — to counter Verlander’s $56 million for 2018-19. Kazmir, who has yet to pitch this year, is owed $16 million in 2018. Detroit would have a shot of sinking under the luxury-tax threshold next year saving $12 million (the difference between Verlander’s $28M and Kazmir’s $16M).

Verdugo, an outfielder, is the kind of big-time prospect the Tigers need to better kick-start a rebuild. He is also the type — think: Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Julio Urias — this Dodgers front office has refused to trade. But the Dodgers are currently the team to beat in the National League. Their vulnerability is rotation fragility, and whatever few ticks down Verlander is from his heyday, he remains a bulldog (and I think he would pitch better on a high-end team). Wilson also would strengthen the setup chain to Kenley Jansen.