Brooklyn’s rebuild has been moving at a crawl, but Tuesday’s reporting from Brian Lewis argues there’s at least some history to lean on if you’re trying to stay patient.
The Nets have been in some stage of teardown and reset for three and a half years now, dating back to the February 9, 2023 trade that sent Kevin Durant away as the final piece of the Big Three to go. And while there’s no sign of anything dramatic waiting for this coming season, the broader picture still includes a path that other young, pick-heavy teams have taken before.
That doesn’t mean the immediate outlook is pretty. Brooklyn went 20-62 last season, and the market expects another rough year.
FanDuel and BetMGM both list the Nets at 24.5 wins, the second-lowest total in the league. Jordi Fernandez may believe his group can outplay that number, but the leaguewide read is clear: Brooklyn is going to have a hard time.
The questions hanging over the team are already piling up before Media Day and training camp even get rolling. What happens with Julius Randle, who could be a short-term fit for a contender?
Will the Nets extend Michael Porter Jr., or move him for more assets? How will they manage a roster built around “extreme youth,” with nine players 22 or younger?
And with the East loaded up - the defending champions across the river, major additions in Philadelphia, Toronto and Miami, and an old face back in Indiana - the path only looks tougher.
Still, Lewis digs into the numbers and finds the kind of precedent Brooklyn’s front office can point to. Last season’s Nets used eight rookies, including a record five first-round picks, and those first-year players logged a league-high 6,716 minutes.
Charlotte was next at 6,241. The note attached to that figure matters too: despite comments from Sean Marks and Fernandez, it was not the most rookie minutes ever in the NBA.
Over the last decade, only four other teams have put that much rookie playing time on the floor: the 2017-18 Kings, 2021-22 Thunder, 2023-24 Trail Blazers and 2024-25 Wizards. All four were terrible in the season when they leaned into youth, combining for a .274 winning percentage, or a 22.5-win pace.
But the next season, those same teams improved to .402, or 33 wins. And when you stretch the sample to Year 2 after the rookie investment, the first three teams jumped all the way to an average .528 mark, a 43-win pace.
The Wizards are expected to improve in their own Year 2 with Dybantsa, Trae Young and Anthony Davis.
That’s the lane Brooklyn is hoping to follow, even if the comparison set isn’t exact. The Thunder remain the model, the team that got smart, got young and got lucky with Shai Gilegous-Alexander. The Trail Blazers and Wizards are still works in progress, but the bigger point is that these rebuilds can move faster than they first look.
For now, though, the Nets are still living in flexibility mode. Marks and Joe Tsai are aligned on that.
Lewis writes that flexibility “is like air for the GM.” Marks put it plainly in his latest comments, saying:
“You just never know what’s going to come your way. So for us to have that optionality is going to be really important.
But at the same time, I like the roster we have. I love seeing what I’m seeing out there.
The guys are guys are playing hard, they’re playing the right way and they’re playing for each other. So I don’t think we’re in any immediate rush to do anything there, from adding more pieces.”
Brooklyn has acted that way, too. The Nets didn’t make a serious push for Peyton Watson, didn’t make what Lewis describes as a real effort to land Jaylen Brown, and a report said Brown wasn’t interested in Brooklyn anyway because he preferred a contender.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was viewed as getting older - 32 in a few months - but not cheaper. Austin Reaves was never leaving Los Angeles.
Trey Murphy III wasn’t worth the Pelicans’ price tag of three first-round picks.
That fits with what Marks said on Media Day last September, when he made it clear the Nets wouldn’t chase a move unless the player “automatically and absolutely” changed the franchise’s projection. The days of spending just to chase the fifth or sixth seed are over.
Some of the next decisions are coming quickly. The end of business Tuesday is effectively a deadline on Porter’s future, because a new extension of more than two years and a five percent raise would make him untradeable this season.
Brooklyn must also decide by October 19 whether to sign Noah Clowney to a rookie-scale extension or let him become a restricted free agent next July. Twelve days after that, the team has to choose whether to guarantee a third year for last year’s rookie class - Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf.
Terance Mann is also eligible for an extension on October 1.
Even with all that looming, there are reasons the organization feels better about where it is than the standings suggest. Summer League gave the team and its fans a jolt, especially with Demin and Mikel Brown Jr., the Nets’ first top 10 lottery picks in back-to-back drafts since 1995 and 1996, when they drafted Ed O’Bannon and Kerry Kittles.
There’s also optimism around Day’Ron Sharpe and the chance for him to take on a bigger role. Add in the draft assets, the cap space and Tsai’s willingness to spend when the time is right, and the blueprint is at least visible.
Whether fans are ready to embrace it is another matter. As Marks put it, the danger is in rushing.
“Anytime you’re in a hurry, that’s when people make mistakes,” Marks said when asked about Porter. “We’ve got a well thought-out plan here over not only the last couple of years, but the couple of years ahead.
We’re going to try and find who the next Nets are going to be. I don’t think we want to do anything hastily or in a rush here.”
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Nets Still Have One Roster Battle That Could Matter More Than Fans Think
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Dain Dainja and Ben Humrichous have both put themselves into the mix, while Cam Nelson remains a possibility once healthy after missing Summer League because of injury. The Nets have not made a final call, and training camp could end up being the place where this job is won, which is exactly why a seemingly small roster battle may wind up carrying more weight than it first appears. [Read more 🡒]