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The 2025 NBA draft will be among the most consequential in the Brooklyn Nets' history. With five picks within the top-36 of what many consider a generational draft, the team has an opportunity to establish a winning core for the next decade-plus.
“We have four first-round picks, which I am excited, elated about,” assistant general manager BJ Johnson said in the team's new YouTube series, SCOUT. “This year’s draft, you’re gonna have foundational players at the top, but also the depth of the draft and the versatility of the players in the draft gives us a lot of excitement that we’re gonna find a lot of good players for us to move forward with.”
The Nets landed the eighth pick at this year's draft lottery. Beyond that, they will have the 19th, 26th, 27th and 36th selections.
Johnson noted that Brooklyn's volume of picks throughout the draft adds tremendously to the scouting department’s workload.
“This is gonna be a different year. We have a lot of guys to get through. Our range is crazy,” he said. “We can have a pick in every single section of the first round, as well as a couple of early and mid-second-round picks. So we gotta cover everybody and be prepared and know what we’re doing at each juncture of the draft.”
Being prepared at each juncture of the draft is no small task. Johnson and general manager Sean Marks gave fans an inside look at what goes into the process.
Nets front office offers inside look at NBA draft process in YouTube series
Brooklyn's scouting department, led by Johnson, has a successful track record, finding impact players such as Jarrett Allen (22), Caris LeVert (20), Nic Claxton (31), Cam Thomas (27) and Day'Ron Sharpe (29) late in the draft.
“We have an unbelievable group of scouts that have so many experiences. [Guys] who played overseas and coached in a wide variety of backgrounds for them. So we’re using all those relationships,” Marks said. “Whoever they have the strongest relationships with, we’re asking them to tap into those and get the information that not a lot of people can get.”
That network of relationships, including coaches, agents and family members of prospects, provides much-needed intel.
“Knowing everything humanly possible about a player is so important. And that’s why NBA teams, they’re not just basketball scouts, they’re also detectives at the same time,” said ESPN draft analyst Jonathon Givony. “They do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that they know everything about these players as human beings. And they wanna know, is this a person that I wanna invest in? Is this someone that I wanna have in my locker room? Is this someone that I want as the face of my franchise? So you have to be able to trust this person.”
Evaluating a player's on-court impact is paramount. However, many of the most talented prospects don't go on to have successful careers. It is equally important to understand their mindset, where it comes from and whether it will thrive under the NBA's high-pressure environment.
“I think you gotta spend time with them, you gotta see what really motivates him,” said Nets scout Akbar Waheed. “Because his whole life, this kid’s been the man. So I think somewhere along the line, he was humbled throughout his life. I think trying to find that place is very hard.”
Johnson elaborated on why getting to know a player's background is so important.
“Your point is just understanding their story. How does a guy obtain his grit? Has he been through something hard in his life that he had to overcome? Has he shown these qualities all along? Understanding all those kinda things gives us a window into the player’s soul, and that’s what we’re trying to figure out,” he replied. “Those guys that can be thrown in this environment and thrive as opposed to the guy that’s gonna be like, all the pressure got to him, he wasn’t ready for it. I can understand that now because of these behaviors along the way. It makes sense.”
Brooklyn's scouts have traveled worldwide over the last calendar year in preparation for the draft. Marks and international scout Richard Midgley traveled to Australia's Gold Coast in September. The GM touched on how the Nets evaluate players' on-court performance during scouting trips.
“Video scouting is one thing, but seeing physically how they move and what they do, which would potentially be off-camera, I think that's important,” Marks said. “None of these guys are polished at this particular point. There’s a huge development piece and a development plan that needs to be put into place. But there are certain things that stand out. You’ll see a couple of these guys come up with an NBA move, and then you go, ok, that’s something I see in our league. How do we grow that? What else can they do?”
This year's lottery was a disappointing outcome for the Nets. However, the eighth pick in what is regarded as the deepest draft in years represents the top draft asset of Marks' tenure. With three other first-round picks and one high-second-round selection, Brooklyn's front office has an opportunity unlike anything the team has seen in its NBA history.
“This year is critical for us. To get this draft right and to really nail it,” Johnson said. “Not only for the talent level that’s in this draft, but the type of people that we really want. We don’t look at it as just a one-time thing. This could set us up for the next five, ten years of our organization. So to me personally, we get these next three years right and we’re in a really good position and I’m really, really excited about that.”
