Brooklyn’s next big decision might not be about rebuilding at all - it might be about whether Michael Porter Jr. is still there when the season turns toward the February trade deadline.
Porter is coming off the best season of his career, and that kind of production usually brings one of two things: a long-term payday or a fresh wave of trade chatter. In Brooklyn, it may be both. The Nets forward has put himself in the middle of the conversation again, with his name landing on Bleacher Report’s list of top-10 trade targets heading into the upcoming season.
“Porter has long loomed as a trade candidate. As an in-prime 28-year-old on a team that's knee-deep in rebuilding waters, the timeline troubles are obvious,” Zach Buckley wrote on Porter for Bleacher Report.
Buckley pointed to the numbers Porter posted last season as part of the case. He noted that Porter’s production hit career highs with 24.2 points and 3.4 three-pointers, and that Brooklyn may feel pressure to move quickly if it believes that level of output is as good as it gets.
“Plus, with his production having peaked this past season (career-highs of 24.2 points and 3.4 three-pointers), there might be some strike-while-the-iron's-hot urgency on Brooklyn's end,” Buckley continued. “Throw in the fact Porter is on an expiring contract (at $40.8 million), and the trade winds just about knock you off your feet. Barring an extension with Brooklyn, the New York Post 's Brian Lewis said on the Third Apron podcast that he'd 'be shocked' if Porter lasts past the deadline without a new deal.”
Porter, 28, averaged 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in the 2025-26 season while shooting 46.3% from the field and 36.3% from three-point range. He is eligible for an extension worth as much as four years and $234 million, though there does not appear to be much belief around the league that Brooklyn will go all the way to the maximum.
That leaves the Nets with a familiar kind of choice: keep a proven scorer as part of the future, or use him as one of their biggest trade chips. Porter has been viewed as a trade target since the start of last season, so the surprise isn’t that his name is back in the mix. The real question is whether Brooklyn locks him up, and if it does, what that deal actually looks like.
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