Evaluating the Brooklyn Nets' 2025 offseason - Hot Hot Hoops

Brooklyn Nets (Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images)

For our second annual offseason outlook series, Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! We will proceed in alphabetical order, starting with the Eastern Conference. Today, we will be hitting the Brooklyn Nets.

Past Previews:

Evaluating the Brooklyn Nets’ 2025 offseason

Additions: Haywood Highsmith, Terance Mann, Michael Porter Jr.

Subtractions: Cam Johnson, De’Anthony Melton (free agent), D’Angelo Russell, Day’Ron Sharpe (free agent), Cam Thomas (free agent), Trenton Watford, Ziaire Williams (free agent)

Re-signed: None

Draft: Egor Demin (No. 8 overall), Nolan Traore (No. 19), Drake Powell (No. 22), Ben Saraf (No. 26), Danny Wolf (No. 27)

Hanifan’s outlook: While they were still one of the four worst teams in the East last season, the Brooklyn Nets pleasantly surprised me under then-first-year head coach Jordi Fernandez. I think he did a great job given the sum of parts he had. Brooklyn entered the offseason with an ungodly amount of cap space. And I wasn’t a fan of how they used most of it.

To begin with, I like acquiring Terance Mann with the No. 22 overall pick. But they still used all five of their first-round picks in June’s draft, which is … interesting.

There’s nothing wrong with having plenty of bites at the apple. However, now all five of their first-round rookies will have their clocks start at the same time.

That’s not to say I didn’t like who the Nets picked. I was not a fan of Egor Demin pre-draft (23 on my board). But I had Traore, Saraf and Wolf Nos. 20, 11 and 19, respectively. I don’t know if I would’ve taken the gamble of Powell at 22, but his long-term upside is intriguing, too.

Four of their five picks have duplicitous skillsets — three of whom all project to be lead playmakers with questionable floors as shooters. Brooklyn needed ballhandlers, but did it need them that much? I’m not sure. A part of me is genuinely surprised it didn’t secure a pick in future drafts with one of their first-round picks — or, at the very least, trade back and collect more future capital. Maybe there wasn’t a good enough deal there; I’m not in those rooms!

Perhaps there will be egg on my face in four years if Fernandez and his staff do a good job developing their rookies! I welcome that because I think, independently, there’s something there with their selections — even if I have questions about their collective fit.

Furthermore, I can’t say I was a fan of the Cam Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. swap — even though they acquired a 2032 first. The counterargument is that Nikola Jokic will be entering his age-37 season that ensuing fall — which is what Brooklyn’s really banking on here. But it added ~$17 million to its books for a polarizing wing (Porter), entering the penultimate year of his $180 million contract. And it came at the expense of a better player (Johnson) on a team-friendly contract.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Johnson could have fetched more than Porter and one first (seven years down the line) either this upcoming deadline or next summer, when he would’ve been expiring.

Oh, and you’re probably well aware of them adding Haywood Highsmith for nothing. They saw the stock was low and struck! Good move by them! And I wouldn’t be surprised if they flipped him for more at the deadline!

The Cam Thomas thing is still looming over Brooklyn’s head and I don’t fault them for how it’s been handled. All in all, I can’t say I’ve loved everything they did, but a part of me earned trust in Jordi Fernandez last season long-term. The roster is weird, though.

Evaluating the Brooklyn Nets’ 2025 offseason – Hot Hot Hoops

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