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Following a historic draft and several offseason trades, the Brooklyn Nets will enter year two of their rebuild with a revamped roster. The Athletic recently ranked every NBA team's offseason based on how much its roster improved or worsened. They ranked Brooklyn's roster transformation towards the bottom of the league at No. 21.
“Someone has to score on bad teams, so Porter Jr. will have the green light from jump while he’s at Barclays Center. It feels like the Nets sold a little low on Johnson, though I get speculating on that ’32 first becoming a golden ticket. And while each of the five players Brooklyn got in the draft have solid skills, particularly Demin and Saraf, there’s no way the Nets planned to use all of their ’25 firsts,” David Aldridge wrote. “I’m pretty sure they hoped to use them to move up into the top five and get a real difference-maker who could accelerate the rebuild. That was a missed opportunity. Another tank season looms, with the stakes now even higher to get a top-four pick in 2026.”
The Nets have downgraded their roster in terms of experience. They moved on from veteran point guards Dennis Schroder and D'Angelo Russell, bringing in three rookies in Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf. They also traded Cam Johnson, their top player from last season, and replaced him with Michael Porter Jr.
While many will allude to a significant downgrade in NBA-ready talent, that's likely by design.
Nets' roster transformation ranked towards bottom of league after busy offseason
Led by their veterans, the Nets came out hotter than expected last season, opening 9-10 and falling behind in the draft lottery standings. Brooklyn finished with the sixth-best lottery odds and fell to the No. 8 pick in the draft. That was a disappointing outcome given they traded what turned out to be the No. 10 pick during the prior offseason.
The Nets sent that pick to the Houston Rockets alongside three other first-rounders to reacquire their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks. After seeing such a minuscule payoff last season, the team should be incentivized to maximize its draft lottery odds this year.
General manager Sean Marks' offseason maneuvers line up with that thought process. Transitioning from Schroder and Russell to all rookie point guards should lead to struggles offensively. On the wing, the Nets swapped Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith for Porter Jr. and Terance Mann, which many have considered a downgrade.
Brooklyn is tied with the Washington Wizards for the NBA's second-lowest win projection (20.5) this season. Only the Utah Jazz (18.5) open the year ranked lower.
