The Brooklyn Nets have made some moves this offseason in an effort to alter the roster along with adding draft picks in the early stages of this rebuild. Brooklyn has not added any marquee free-agents over the course of this summer as they have used their league-leading cap space for other means, but there may have been a chance for them to maximize their free-agency prospects.

“Look, I said this at the time, if I was Brooklyn, I would have been ecstatic to bring in Fred VanVleet as my point guard that can help my young guys develop,” The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie said of Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet during a recent episode of the “Game Theory” podcast. The episode was centered around Vecenie and The Athletic’s Es Baraheni breaking down the top 10 moves that happened during this offseason.

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“I can’t imagine a better guard to put next to Cam Thomas just in terms of steadiness,” Vecenie continued while talking about VanVleet. “Defense, willing to fight, everything like that. I thought he’d have a market and it just ultimately ended up that maybe he just didn’t have a market, right? Two (years) for $50 (million) for Fred VanVleet. That’s an unbelievable deal in my opinion.”

Throughout the offseason, there weren’t many reports connecting the Nets to VanVleet as he was looking to maximize what he could get in free-agency this summer. Prior to signing a two-year, $50 million contract to return to the Rockets, VanVleet had a player option for the 2025-26 season worth $44.9 million. Brooklyn had the most cap space coming into this offseason, but a player like VanVleet would most likely have been looking for to play for a contender.

In terms of free-agency signings, the Nets have re-signed forward Ziaire Williams and center Day’Ron Sharpe along with signing forward Ricky Council IV and guard Fanbo Zeng. With Brooklyn selecting guard Egor Demin with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, it makes sense that the team didn’t sign VanVleet even though he could have helped Demin grow into his role as the franchise’s next point guard.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Should the Nets have tried to sign Rockets’ Fred VanVleet?