The Brooklyn Nets are spending the quieter stretch of the offseason with their draft work, summer league run and free agency business already in the books, and one national evaluation says the front office deserves more credit than it gets.
CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn placed Brooklyn 16th in his latest NBA front-office rankings, and he framed the Nets as a team whose reputation and reality don’t quite match up. “Brooklyn's front office probably faces the biggest disparity between perception and reality of any in basketball. The prevailing narrative surrounding the Nets is that they've been poorly run and their outlook is bleak,” Quinn wrote.
His ranking wasn’t based on what Brooklyn has already accomplished so much as the shape of the roster and the asset stash in front of it. “True, they haven't yet found any truly foundational players, but they have a clean cap sheet and a six-pick first-round draft surplus (not including swaps, though in fairness they owe their 2027 swap to the Houston Rockets),” Quinn continued. “The reality is that this is a pretty promising blank slate if you're willing to take the long view.”
There’s still a real critique attached to Sean Marks and the front office: the Nets have not landed a star-level player yet. But after the franchise officially closed the book on the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving big three era by trading both players during the 2022-23 season, Brooklyn shifted into a full rebuild.
That pivot has left the Nets in a very different place. The roster once included players like Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and Ben Simmons, but the long-term plan is now built around draft capital, not quick fixes. Brooklyn is set up to have at least two first-round picks in five of the next six years.
The 2025 NBA Draft is already a major part of that story, since the Nets used it to select five players. That haul will be one of the clearest ways to judge Marks and the front office moving forward. For now, though, Quinn’s ranking suggests there are still some around the league who see Brooklyn’s rebuild as a workable one, even if the results haven’t fully arrived yet.
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Day'Ron Sharpe Faces A Big Nets Test At Center
Nic Claxtons departure left a clear opening in the middle, and DayRon Sharpe is the one stepping into it. For the first time in his career, the big man is headed into a season as a full-time starter, a major shift for a player who has spent most of his five previous years as a backup and has only 21 career starts to his name.
For Brooklyn, the question is not just whether Sharpe can handle the role, but how far the Nets want to lean into it. The team can give him a much larger workload and see what he does with extended minutes, yet the front office could also decide the center spot needs more help if the early returns are not enough. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Suddenly Have One Big Question In The Middle
With Nic Claxton moved out of the middle, the Nets are heading into the season with a very different look at center, and DayRon Sharpe is next in line to get a real chance to show he can handle the job. Brooklyn has long valued his energy and activity, but now the opportunity is bigger than spot minutes or short stretches off the bench, with the team signaling that Sharpe will get an extended run as the starter.
For a roster still sorting out its frontcourt identity, that makes the center spot one of the most important questions on the floor. The Nets do not need Sharpe to become a different player overnight, but they do need him to prove he can anchor the position for longer stretches while the rest of the rotation settles around him. That kind of audition can change a season, and in Brooklyns case, it could also shape what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Marks Still Defines Everything About The Nets Era Fans Debate
Sean Marks turned 51 on Aug. 23, and the milestone is a reminder of just how much of the Nets modern identity has been shaped by one front-office voice. Hired in 2016, the general manager has guided Brooklyn through a full range of eras, from the long rebuild that followed his arrival to the return to the playoffs and then the star-driven sprint that brought Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden through the organization.
Now the Nets are back in another reset, this time under Jordi Fernndez, with the focus shifted to young talent and draft assets. For fans, that makes Marks an unavoidable figure in the ongoing debate over where the franchise has been, what it tried to become and whether the next version of the team will finally bring lasting stability. [Read more 🡒]