In his day job, ProfessorB is an award-winning social scientist and Presidential Laureate. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other major media outlets. But he also dabbles in NetsWorld.
With the season winding down to an ignominious conclusion, Nets fans will soon have both eyes firmly on the future. The May 12 draft lottery will provide a boost (or a letdown) for their hopes. However the ping pong balls fall, the pressure will be on GM Sean Marks to find a future star with the first lottery pick of his career. But the team’s short-term future will really only begin to come into focus after the draft. That’s when the Nets face a choice—whether to continue tanking for another season or turn, as best they can, to winning.
Last summer, Marks made no secret of his intention to tank. He traded the “face of the franchise” for draft picks and spare parts. He also traded a treasure trove of future assets to retrieve the team’s first-round picks in 2025 and 2026 from Houston. The most promising addition was a salary dump, fallen angel Ziaire Williams. Oddsmakers got the message, picking the Nets to finish last in the league. When they unexpectedly won nine of their first 19 games, Marks continued the teardown, trading starting point guard Dennis Schoder and defensive stalwart Dorian Finney-Smith to get the tank back on track.
“These are the decisions you have to make when your ultimate goal is long-term sustainable success,” he told reporters euphemistically.
Will we see more of the same next season? Or will this summer be spent building a playoff-worthy team? It could go either way.
The Nets currently have nine players under contract for 2025-26, a total commitment of just $63.5 million. That leaves $91 million in cap space, vastly more than any other NBA team. Some of that money will be tied up in cap holds (or actual contracts) for their own free agents — Williams, Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, Trendon Watford. Some will be earmarked for the players they draft. But there is plenty to build with. They also lead the league in tradeable draft picks.
One option is to spend the summer using those resources to build a winning team. That could involve making big offers to attractive young free agents like Naz Reid, Santiago Aldama, Jonathan Kuminga, or Josh Giddey. Less obviously, it could also involve a major trade. Being able to trade draft picks for players without sending back salary could be a significant attraction for potential trade partners—much better, even, than sending back expiring contracts. Speculation naturally centers on marquee names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, but there are plenty of teams with cap pressures that might tempt them to exchange good players for picks.
The downside of this path is that it would dilute the value of the Nets’ 2026 draft pick. Even if they don’t dig too far into their cache of future picks, using their available cap space this summer in a serious effort to improve would probably produce a back-of-the-lottery team, at worst. With the Suns “plowing full steam ahead and throwing lifejackets overboard as they go,” as John Hollinger put it, the picks Marks traded for the right to tank are looking even more valuable than they did last summer. Can he bring himself to treat the trade as a sunk cost and get on with building the best team Joe Tsai’s money can buy?
Another possibility is to continue tanking in hopes of turning that ’26 draft pick, reacquired at such high cost, into a franchise player. That would entail doing as little as possible with the mountain of cap space opening up this summer. There would still be a lot of contracts handed out; league rules require teams to spend a minimum of $139.2 million next season. But those contracts would involve few long-term commitments, and they would go to players who aren’t good enough to make next year’s team competitive. If the Nets throw a big two-year contract with a team option in year two at a veteran billed as “a locker room leader,” we’re definitely in Option B territory. Another clear tell would be a trade for a big contract that comes with a draft pick rather than costing one—essentially, renting out spare cap space (ideally, for just one season) while buying as few additional wins as possible.
Of course, there is also the waffling option—splitting the difference, adding some talent but hoping nonetheless to land a high lottery pick next season. That’s unlikely to work. As Nets fans learned this season, tanking is a competitive business, even for teams with modest talent. “Right now there are nine teams tanking,” a league executive told ESPN last month. “And next year’s draft is going to have maybe more franchise players than this year’s draft. A year from now, you may still have nine teams tanking.” In a lottery, anything can happen. But the big prizes are likely to go to the most determined competitors.
Whatever path they pick, the Nets will make the right—hopeful—noises. We’ll hear about “competing” and “long-term sustainable success.” But fans should watch what they do, not what they say. Will they be spending to win this summer, or treading water?