Since the Nets moved to Brooklyn in 2012, the franchise has gone through every kind of season imaginable: a rebuild, a sudden rise, a superstar surge, and then another reset. That kind of stretch naturally sparks the same question every fanbase loves to argue about. Who belongs on the Brooklyn Nets Mount Rushmore?
This isn’t about the franchise’s full history. It’s strictly about the Brooklyn years, which means only players who suited up after the move from New Jersey can be considered.
Talent matters, sure, but this exercise has to go beyond that. Longevity, production, legacy, and the size of a player’s imprint all count too.
For Brooklyn, the first face on the mountain has to be Brook Lopez.
Lopez was drafted by the franchise in 2008, but he became the defining player of the transition into Brooklyn. He was the first real star of this era and stayed with the organization for nine seasons before being traded in 2017.
He still stands as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, and while his No. 11 jersey hasn’t been retired because he’s still active, it’s widely expected to end up in the Barclays Center rafters when his career is over. The Nets didn’t pile up playoff success while he was there, but Lopez’s place in team history is impossible to ignore.
If Lopez gave Brooklyn its foundation, Kevin Durant gave it its highest ceiling.
Durant’s Brooklyn debut was slowed by injuries, but once he got on the floor, he looked exactly like the all-time scorer he’s been for years. Over more than three seasons with the Nets, he picked up multiple All-NBA honors and averaged nearly 30 points per game.
His signature moment came in the 2021 playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks, when he authored one of the great postseason runs the league has ever seen. That included the 49-point triple-double in Game 5 and the unforgettable Game 7 that was literally inches away from sending Brooklyn to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The title never arrived, but no one in a Nets uniform ever reached Durant’s level.
Joe Harris earns his place for a different reason: he was the steady hand through it all.
Claimed off waivers in 2016, Harris spent seven seasons with Brooklyn and grew into one of the NBA’s premier shooters from deep. He was part of the surprise 2018-19 playoff team, then fit right into the next wave alongside Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden.
By the end of his Nets run, Harris had piled up a collection of franchise three-point records and established himself as one of the most important role players in Brooklyn history. He may not have been the biggest name, but his influence was enormous.
Nic Claxton rounds out the group because his story is exactly the kind of development arc a rebuilding team hopes for.
Taken with the 31st overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Claxton arrived as a raw, athletic prospect. Seven seasons later, he had become one of the NBA’s premier defensive centers.
He made an All-Defensive Team and anchored Brooklyn’s defense while emerging as one of the league’s most versatile big men. His growth mattered not just because of what he became, but because of what it said about the franchise’s ability to build from within.
When his departure came in 2026, it closed the book on one of the Brooklyn era’s best homegrown success stories.
There are other names with real cases, of course.
Kyrie Irving was one of the most gifted players to ever wear a Nets uniform and turned in an All-NBA season in Brooklyn. If this were a pure talent list, he’d have a loud argument. But injuries, missed games, and a shorter stay leave him outside the top four.
Joe Johnson was the first All-Star of the Brooklyn era and brought real credibility to the team in its early years. He hit huge shots and gave the franchise plenty of memorable moments, but four seasons wasn’t enough to push him into the group.
D’Angelo Russell changed the mood around the organization. He helped lead the surprise 2018-19 playoff team and helped restore excitement around Brooklyn basketball before Durant and Irving arrived. His impact was real, even if the timeline was short.
Spencer Dinwiddie went from a waiver claim to one of the league’s better guards and became a symbol of the culture shift that made Brooklyn appealing to stars. His rise is one of the best development stories in team history, but it still falls just short.
Jarrett Allen has grown into one of the NBA’s best centers, though much of that leap came after the James Harden trade sent him to Cleveland. If he’d stayed longer, the conversation might look very different.
Mikal Bridges also deserves mention. He stepped into the role of face of the franchise during a transitional period and had an excellent first full season with the Nets. But two seasons simply weren’t enough to build the kind of Brooklyn legacy that gets you onto this kind of list.
That’s the fun of a Mount Rushmore debate: the arguments never really end. Some fans will chase peak talent and make the case for Irving.
Others will point to the early credibility Joe Johnson brought, or the way Russell and Dinwiddie helped shift the culture. But when the full Brooklyn era is weighed the way it should be, the four names that rise above the rest are clear: Brook Lopez, Kevin Durant, Joe Harris, and Nic Claxton.
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Ben Sarafs summer league run gave Brooklyn a better look at what it has in the 19-year-old guard, and it also made the teams backcourt picture a little more interesting heading into training camp. Across the California Classic and Las Vegas, Saraf showed enough playmaking to keep himself in the conversation, averaging 10.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.2 steals while logging steady reps against NBA-level competition.
The bigger question now is how that production translates once the Nets start sorting out actual point guard minutes. Saraf is set to battle Mikel Brown Jr. and Nolan Traore for playing time, and the competition is shaping up to be one of Brooklyns most notable camp storylines, especially with Brown viewed as the likelier starter. Saraf still has to answer concerns about how much pressure he can create as a perimeter scorer and whether he can consistently finish, but he has at least earned a real chance to make the decision tougher. [Read more 🡒]
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The Nets spent the 2025 season giving five first-round rookies a real look at NBA life, and now the front office has a years worth of tape to sort through. Egor Demin and Danny Wolf emerged as standouts from the group, while Drake Powell, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf each showed enough steady flashes to keep the conversation going into the offseason.
What happens next feels like one of the more important storylines in Brooklyns rebuild, because this class is no longer just a bundle of promising names. The organization is expected to evaluate the group again next season and decide who fits the long-term picture, with the possibility that not every rookie will still be part of the franchise by the time those choices come into focus. [Read more 🡒]