After picking up a first-round pick for their troubles as the financial facilitator of the pre-draft trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis from the Boston Celtics to the Atlanta Hawks, the Brooklyn Nets found themselves in an unprecedented position. And according to a report, many of their rivals think they blew it.
The Nets had five of the 30 picks in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, a situation that has not arisen before in NBA history, and yet also one that very few teams would ever want because of the likely roster spot shortage they engender. It was expected that in some way, they would move on from at least one of them. Be it by trading it for picks in future years, or packaging them to move up, it was thought that while the Nets entered the night with the rights to five rookies, they would not leave with them all.
However, keep them, they did. And according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, rival executives and player agents around the league are “laughing” at this decision, and the players they would ultimately pick, thought not to be as good as the players they were using to tank in the first place.
Nets Hoping For Both Quantity And Quality
With their five picks, the Nets chose to select Egor Demin (#8), Nolan Traore (#19), Drake Powell (#22), Ben Saraf (#26) and Danny Wolf (#27). In theory, they picked one player for each position; a playmaking four in Demin, a versatile seven-footer in Wolf, a pure point in Traore, a defensive specialist wing in Powell and a combo guard in Saraf.
However, the supposed laughter seems to come from the quality of the picks themselves.
âPeople are making fun of these draft picks”, said Windhorst. “I got people saying to me, you know, executives and agents, theyâre like âI was watching them play three two-way guys during this year so that they could clout for taking the guys in the 20s. Heâs like âThese two-way guys might be just as good as these guys they are taking.â”
“I donât know anything about it, Iâm just saying what people are saying.â
Nets coach Avery Johnson expressed something similar on CBS Sports, lamenting that the Nets were not making the highest-upside picks with all those opportunities.
“I donât see a single All-Star here”, said Johnson, despite four of the picks not being in the lottery. “When you look at this list, who is going to make a shot?”
“Yes, you can draft playmakers. But if you canât make shots, thereâs not as many plays to be made.â
Focused On The Wrong Things
Perhaps, though, the Nets paid little to mind to the future cohesion of these players at their apex. Perhaps they just felt they were the five best players available, irrespective of fit.
Coming off a 26-56 season, and with an almost-complete monopoly on the NBA’s free agency cap space this summer, the Nets roster next season will be virtually unrecognisable from this past one. Notwithstanding promising performances from individual talents such as Day’Ron Sharpe, Noah Clowney and Keon Johnson, the Nets lack most of the foundation stones required of a successful basketball team, and instead have been the league’s go-to trade partner while they were treading limbo and accumulating assets. Even the good veterans that they have, such as D’Angelo Russell and Cam Johnson, are considered available.
It is certainly valid to question whether, although they have a roster in flux, five new youngsters is too many. But only the passage of time will tell whether the early criticisms of the picked players are correct. For now, the Nets do not have enough foundational pieces to criticize their cohesion. They may not have been the right picks, but even if they were not, “fit” is not the reason why.
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