With the Nets still one of the league’s youngest groups, the list of people under pressure is a long one. And according to Brian Lewis, that pressure doesn’t stop with the players. It stretches into the front office, too.
The first hard deadline comes fast. Sean Marks and company have until October 31 to decide what to do with the Flatbush 5, including whether to pick up third-year options on the four players taken at Nos. 19, 22, 26 and 27.
Egor Demin looks like the easy call after a solid rookie season and an even better Summer League. The other four are more complicated, though Lewis points out that in the NBA, nothing is ever truly locked in.
Nolan Traoré, the next-highest drafted of the group behind Dëmin, missed summer league because of injury. He’s added bulk, but he still has to stay healthy and get better at finishing.
Drake Powell had a rough run in both Sacramento and Las Vegas, and the shooting numbers were ugly. Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf also need to improve their floor spacing.
Even with those issues, it still feels unlikely that the Nets would pass on any of those options, Powell included. But the team has seen this movie before. Two years ago, Brooklyn picked up Dariq Whitehead’s third-year option after the 2023 draft, only to waive him the following October after a disappointing season.
There’s another decision looming even sooner. The Nets have until October 19 to decide whether to offer Noah Clowney a multi-year extension. Right now, that looks unlikely, which would send the 22-year-old toward restricted free agency next July.
Clowney’s season wasn’t a disaster. He averaged 12.3 points on 40/33/80 shooting and added 4.1 rebounds in 66 games, with 60 starts.
He also showed flashes of what he can become, including games with seven 3-pointers and seven blocks over the past two seasons, while getting to the foul line more often. But the Nets clearly wanted more growth.
That matters now because Julius Randle’s arrival almost certainly pushes Clowney out of the starting power forward spot. And it could cost him more than minutes.
If he doesn’t take a step forward as a rebounder, shooter or shot-blocker, he risks losing out on the kind of restricted free-agent payday that was sitting there for him. Those are three areas Brooklyn badly needs help in.
There is still a path for Clowney to carve out a bigger role. If his 3-point shooting and rim protection improve, he could get chances at all three frontcourt spots. If they don’t, he’ll be fighting not only Randle - who played 79 games last season and is described as an ironman - but also Josh Minott, who brings similar versatility and is only 16 months older.
The veterans at the top of the roster have their own questions, even if they’re far more established. Michael Porter Jr. is 28 and in his eighth season.
Randle is nearly 32 and entering his 13th. Between them, they have one championship ring, three All-Star selections, two All-NBA nods and roughly $350 million in career earnings.
They’re also both on big money and staring at uncertain futures. Porter Jr. is on an expiring $40.8 million deal and wants an extension.
Randle is making $35.8 million and has a player option for 2027-28, so he’ll likely be looking for a new deal next July. Both have said the right things about Brooklyn’s youth, with Porter Jr. predicting 50 wins and Randle saying the team could “shock the world.”
Still, the fit with the Nets’ timeline is the real question, especially with Randle. Brooklyn will need a fast start, and it would not be a surprise if the team explored moving him at the trade deadline. If that happens, Randle would have a chance to change the story around his exit from Minnesota while showing the kind of leadership that matches his scoring and bullyball style.
Porter Jr. and Randle may also be valuable trade chips if Brooklyn decides they aren’t long-term pieces on shorter deals. Contending teams can always use scorers like that after February.
And if the Nets don’t plan to keep them beyond this season, getting something back before they reach the open market would make sense. The question becomes what Brooklyn would want in return - more picks, even though it already leads the league in total first-rounders and second-rounders over the next seven years, or younger players?
Marks himself is part of the story here, too. How the young core develops - Demin, rookie lottery pick Mikel Brown Jr. and newly promoted starter Day’Ron Sharpe among them - will shape everything. But so will the larger question of whether he keeps preserving assets for the next available star, with owner Joe Tsai’s patience behind him.
Marks will have a chance to spell all that out at Media Day, when he and Jordi Fernandez can explain what the team expects this season. Tsai won’t be there, but he’s still very much in the picture.
He recently told author Michael Rubenstein that while the Nets need to “win championships”, he also believes in a “multi-year rebuilding process” and “build through the draft.” In other words, the owner knows he has something to prove, too.
In Other News...
Nets History's Biggest What-Ifs Are Suddenly Back In Focus
A recent podcast appearance by Peter Vecsey reopened a familiar Nets conversation: how a franchise with plenty of turning points has also spent years revisiting the ones that slipped away. Vecsey walked through several of the organizations defining crossroads, from why the Nets passed on Kobe Bryant in 1996 to the circumstances that helped push Julius Erving out the door, offering a reminder that the teams history is as much about decisions made as opportunities missed.
He also revisited Drazen Petrovics contract frustration and the possibility he could have gone overseas before his death, another sharp reminder of how fragile those eras could be. Vecsey widened the lens to more modern Nets business, too, weighing in on the James Harden trade and Sean Marks run as an executive, which keeps the franchises past and present tied together in the same uncomfortable question: which moves really defined the organization, and which ones still haunt it? [Read more 🡒]
Joe Tsai Just Framed The Pressure Around Brooklyns Rebuild
The Nets are deep into their first true rebuild since Joe Tsai took over as controlling owner in 2019, and hes making clear he understands the mood around it. Tsai described Brooklyns fanbase as sophisticated and patient, the kind of audience that expects the organization to build the right way through the draft rather than chase shortcuts, which fits a team still sorting out its long-term direction after the era of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden.
Tsai also acknowledged that Nets fans come with strong opinions, and that those voices matter because they help hold the organization accountable. In a market that has seen the whole arc from star-chasing to reset, the pressure now is different but no less real, with Brooklyn trying to show progress the patient way while knowing the scrutiny will only grow as the rebuild unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Added Two Forwards With A Bigger Goal Than The Roster
The Nets have filled out their roster with the signings of forwards Ben Humrichous and Dain Dainja, bringing the group to 21 players as camp approaches. Both are expected to be in training camp and could wind up spending most of their time with the Long Island Nets in the G League, which has become the standard holding pattern for players on the edge of the NBA roster.
Humrichous arrives on an Exhibit 10 deal after going undrafted, while Dainja comes in after a previous stop with the Miami Heat. For Brooklyn, the point is bigger than simply rounding out the depth chart, since these types of signings often serve as an early look at developmental pieces the organization wants to keep close and evaluate through camp. What happens next will depend on how they look once the pace picks up. [Read more 🡒]