The Brooklyn Nets will have to make plenty of decisions before the beginning of the 2025-26 season, especially when it comes to building the roster for a better season. Brooklyn is coming off a 26-56 campaign in the 2024-25 season so the team needs better players on the roster, but one mainstay could be playing elsewhere.
Since the end of the 2024-25 regular season, there has been chatter surrounding the possibility of the Los Angeles Lakers trading for someone like Nets center Nic Claxton to improve their center group. The reports regarding this possibility have been more suggestive than definitive of Los Angeles’ interest in the former Georgia Bulldog, but it is something to monitor as the offseason progresses.
At this point of the offseason, anything can happen at anytime, as evidenced by the Memphis Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic earlier this week for mostly draft picks. Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey provided a framework of what could be expected from a trade that sends Claxton from Brooklyn to the Lakers this summer.
Bailey’s proposal would be the Nets sending Claxton to Los Angeles in exchange for forwards Rui Hachimura and Maxi Kleber, a 2028 first-round pick swap and a 2031 first-round pick. While Brooklyn would rather be able to acquire someone like guard Austin Reaves from the Lakers for trading Claxton, Los Angeles is intent on trading away Reaves only if they get back a “top-tier big,” per Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times.
Whether the Lakers view someone like Claxton as a “top-tier” center is left to be seen, but all of their centers from last season are either free-agents and Two-Ways. Claxton isn’t a free-agent, but the free-agent pool for centers isn’t promising given that Myles Turner is most likely to re-sign with the Indiana Pacers while Naz Reid could return to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
There hasn’t been much reporting to indicate what Claxton’s market is as of this writing, but he has three years and almost $70 million left on his current deal. Claxton, 26, is coming off a 2024-25 season in which he averaged 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 56.3% from the field and 51.3% from the free-throw line in 70 games played.