The Brooklyn Nets have plenty of new faces heading into a season shaped by a busier-than-usual NBA offseason and a revamped Eastern Conference. But the conversation in Brooklyn is not just about who arrived. A handful of current Nets are also staring at contract pressure, with this season set up as a prove-it stretch for several players on the roster.
Trendon Sharpe is one of the clearest names to watch. Now entering his sixth NBA season, he has spent all five of his previous years with Brooklyn and has steadily carved out a larger role.
The 24-year-old averaged 8.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 18.7 minutes per game in 2025-26, and while the jump in production has not been dramatic, he has kept improving. Sharpe moved into the starting five after Nic Claxton left in the same offseason that he signed a two-year, $20 million deal with a $10 million team option for 2027-28.
In all likelihood, the Nets will pick that up.
Jalen Minott also enters a pivotal year after arriving at the trade deadline. Brooklyn brought him in from the Boston Celtics for cash considerations, and he made an immediate impression in a short sample, posting 10.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 49-40-80 in 16 games.
He later landed a two-year, $9 million contract with a $4.5 million team option in 2027-28. Like Sharpe, this season is about proving he belongs in Brooklyn’s long-term plans.
At 6-foot-8 with a near-seven-foot wingspan, he has the tools to become a real two-way piece.
The Nets also added two veterans in free agency under unusual contract terms. Wagner and Ellis each signed two-year deals with mutual options in the second season, meaning both sides have to agree for the 2027-28 option to kick in. If either the team or the player wants to continue the partnership, the option gets exercised.
Wagner’s deal is worth $18.45 million, with $9 million in year one and $9.45 million if the second year is picked up. His final season with the Orlando Magic came with a noticeable drop in minutes, but Brooklyn is banking on his value as a floor-spacer and a part-time enforcer who can bring some bite off the bench.
Ellis arrives with a similar need to rebound. He had seemed to settle in with the Sacramento Kings as a scrappy 3&D defender, but his role shrank last season before a trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
His minutes bounced back before the playoffs, though Cleveland still didn’t lean on him much in the postseason. At 26, he still has time to regain that footing, and his defensive instincts and jumper give Brooklyn a useful bench option.
Porter is in a different spot entirely. The Nets had the chance to work out an extension before Aug. 11, which would have helped Brooklyn avoid the six-month trade restriction that would have run right up to the February deadline.
That window passed without a deal, and now there’s no urgency until the start of next summer’s free agency. Still, there is a real possibility that his second season with the Nets is his last.
If an extension still isn’t close by the trade deadline, rival teams are likely to check in.
Clowney is another key name because of where he sits in the league’s contract timeline. He is among the first-round picks from the 2023 NBA Draft who have not yet signed a rookie-scale extension, and the deadline for that is Oct.
- If nothing gets done, he would head toward restricted free agency in 2027.
The 22-year-old has been solid in his three seasons in Brooklyn, though questions remain about his efficiency. With the Nets carrying the cap space to keep him, they may choose to let the season play out and then decide whether to match whatever offer he gets next summer.
In Other News...
Cam Whitmore Suddenly Feels Like A Nets Fit To Watch
Cam Whitmores path has quickly turned uncertain after Cleveland acquired him in a multi-team trade, only for the Cavaliers to reportedly weigh whether to waive and stretch his contract. For a young wing with real upside, that kind of roster calculus can be harsh, but it also opens the door for a team that still has room to think more about talent than fit on paper.
The Nets are one of the clubs worth watching if Whitmore does become available. Brooklyn has a clear need for young scoring help on the wing, and Whitmores profile lines up with the kind of upside swing that makes sense for a team still sorting out its long-term core. Charlotte is another possible landing spot, but from Brooklyns perspective, this is exactly the sort of opportunity that can go from theoretical to very real in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Still Face One Brutal Question After A Quiet Offseason
The Nets spent the offseason piecing together a new look, adding Julius Randle in a trade, signing Keon Ellis and Moe Wagner, and using the draft to bring in Mikel Brown Jr., Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau. After two seasons that produced a combined 118 losses, Brooklyn is betting that a mix of veterans such as Randle and Michael Porter Jr. and a handful of young prospects can at least move the group toward respectability.
Still, the real test is less about the names on the roster and more about what happens when the games start to count. Brooklyn opens preseason Oct. 6 against the Hornets, then gets Charlotte again in the home opener on Oct. 21, and those early dates should offer the first real clues about whether this quiet reset has enough structure to hold up once the schedule tightens. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Fans Are Split On What This Season Really Means
The Nets head into the new season carrying the kind of weight that comes with a long rebuild and a fan base that has learned to read between the lines. After finishing with 20 wins and missing the postseason again, Brooklyn still has Joe Tsai and Sean Marks preaching patience, even as the roster has been reshaped with names like Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. and the outside world keeps trying to assign a timetable to the turnaround.
There is some real intrigue here, because the roster has enough recognizable talent to make a leap feel possible, but not enough certainty to quiet the doubts. Oddsmakers have set the bar around 24.5 wins, which says plenty about how the league views the Nets right now, and it leaves Brooklyn stuck in the middle of two different conversations: whether this is the start of something more serious, or just another season of waiting for the rebuild to show its hand. [Read more 🡒]