The Brooklyn Nets have made some interesting decisions this offseason including when they broke an NBA record by selecting five players in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft. Brooklyn also made the surprising decision to trade for Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for forward Michael Porter Jr. and a 2032 first-round pick, but there are some who aren’t convinced by the Nets‘ decisions.
“Brooklyn is getting too much flak for this offseason. Yes, the Nets became the first team ever to make five first-round picks in a single draft, but they’re tanking,” CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn wrote explaining his view that some pundits are crushing Brooklyn too much for their decisions this offseason. There are some who believe that the Nets ruined the opportunity to have an effective draft class by drafting multiple players with similar skillsets while also not getting enough from the Nuggets for Johnson.
“Yet, we dropped the Nets five slots. Why? A few reasons. The first relates to their draft,” Quinn continued as he broke down the reasons why the Nets dropped to the 17th-best front office in the NBA after being ranked 12th in February. “Second, we have to address the Houston trade from last offseason. I was very, very wrong about that deal. At least for now, Houston won it convincingly.”
As mentioned above, plenty of people around the NBA have criticized the Nets for the way that they handled their draft especially considering that their last chance to get a premium pick is in 2026. With players like AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson expected to headline one of the better classes in recent memory, Brooklyn has to find a way to develop the younger players on the roster while keeping the big picture in mind.
In fact, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Kevin Pelton essentially wrote as much when the duo put the Nets in a tier in which the main focus for the 2025-26 season should be maximizing draft capital. Brooklyn is still in a position to be one of the worst teams in the NBA next season so that part should speak for itself, but if the Nets end up with a lower-than-expected pick, they will have to think long and hard about the viability of this current rebuild.