The Brooklyn Nets are less than one month away from the beginning of the 2025-26 NBA season as they seek to have a better campaign than they did in 2024-25. Brooklyn has been busy this offseason by drafting five players in the 2025 NBA Draft and trading for players like Michael Porter Jr., but the Nets will have to make some tough decisions prior to the regular season.
“The Nets are still sitting on over $20 million in cap space, even after factoring in reported agreements with Day’Ron Sharpe, Ziaire Williams and Ricky Council IV,” Keith Smith wrote for Spotrac earlier this month. As of this writing, Spotrac has Brooklyn with $14,297,010 million left in cap space, but that figure doesn’t appear to account for the signings of Williams, Sharpe, Council, or Fanbo Zeng.
“That means that eating a couple of contracts is no big deal for Brooklyn. In fact, they’ll be the prime trade partner for teams that need a facilitator by taking on another contract or two,” Smith continued. “Brooklyn has to get to the salary floor before the start of the regular season, or they’ll have a cap hold for the difference put on their books. Even more important: The Nets would miss out on the luxury tax disbursement from the NBA at the end of the season.”
Since the beginning of the 2025 NBA season, the Nets have been doing what they can to remake the roster while getting closer to the salary cap floor ($139,182,000 million) with each move. Brooklyn has made moves like acquiring Porter from the Denver Nuggets, forward Terance Mann from the Atlanta Hawks, and forward Haywood Highsmith from the Miami Heat while getting draft capital at the same time.
Time will tell what Zeng’s deal will look like, but he is likely going to get en Exhibit 10 contract, better known as a training camp deal. In addition to Zeng, the Nets still have to figure out what’s going to happen with guard Cam Thomas as his next contract will impact what Brooklyn’s cap sheet looks like. Ultimately, the Nets still have some moves to make to meet the cap floor.