When ranking future assets, the pundits have to consider the Nets in any conversation. Whether it all works out won’t be known for a while. The pundits like what they see though.
We’re coming down the home stretch of the rankings season. From now through Opening Night on October 22, pundits will pop their rankings of all 30 teams on this, that or the other thing. Of course, soon after the season begins, the value of assets will change as contending team GMs notice their needs and try to fill them in.
On Friday, there were two rankings that put the Brooklyn Nets, with all those picks and all that cap space, in the top four of two rankings: “a point-in-time appraisal and ranking of each NBA team’s assets in the trade market” by Hoopshype and “ranking of the cache of picks for the five teams that hold the most first-round choices as of Sept. 10, 2024” by ESPN’s Bobby Marks. In other words, looking at the real-time assets in one, the long-term assets in the other.
The Nets rank fourth in Hoopshype’s more long term look, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Utah Jazz and the San Antonio Spurs. In ESPN’s trade-ready list, the Nets rank even higher at No. 3, in back of the Spurs and Thunder.
In the Hoopshype review, Marks Deeks writes about the Nets as they try to got back on track.
The team that once so famously had the emptiest cupboard imaginable are now armed with plenty of draft picks. By virtue of their trade of Mikal Bridges last season in particular, the Nets have plenty of bullets to use in the next few drafts, and some decent players on the roster to pair them with. You would also hope that they will have learned from the Prokohorov days on what to do with it all.
Meeks doesn’t make any forecast, hazard a guess, on what the Nets will look like a year.
As for ESPN’s Bobby Marks, he thinks the Nets bevy of draft picks makes them attractive as a trade partner but he pleads no specific knowledge. He just warns that thinks can turn around quickly if you make one big move … that works.
The Nets are an example of how quickly things can change in the NBA. Three seasons ago, a lineup that included Harden, Irving and Durant had Brooklyn one win away from the conference finals.
But after Harden asked out in 2022, then Irving and Durant a year later, Brooklyn went from a contender to a team with no identity, despite acquiring eight first-round picks in exchange for the three players …
Now they have an even bigger stash of picks following the Bridges trade and the Houston Rockets trade that got them their 2025 swap rights 2026 first rounder. Bobby Marks said those two picks are the Nets most valuable.
The Bridges trade has Brooklyn possessing a league-high 15 first-round picks over the next seven years, including four in the 2025 draft. Three of those firsts (Milwaukee, New York and Oklahoma City) could fall later in the first round, in the 20s.
Moreover, the Nets could have two very valuable second round picks as well in 2025, starting with their own which they brought home in the Bridges deal after being shuttled around the league over seven years.