The Brooklyn Nets signed an unprecedented draft class in 2025 with five first-round picks. Not only was the sheer volume of this class historic by the NBA’s standards, but in the past five years, Brooklyn hasn’t built up its roster through the draft.

Before the 2025 draft cycle, the most retained draft picks that the Nets had came in 2021, with four and then in 2023, there were three.

Brooklyn’s selections in this past draft cycle showed that the organization was looking to build in a different way than usual. Trading away draft capital to form super teams has bitten the Nets in the past, and the idea with their five rookies this season is to slowly rebuild as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers have done in recent years.

Comparison by Class

From sheer volume numbers, the 2023 and 2021 classes are the only ones that stack up with the 2025 class.

The 2023 class featured Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead in the first round and Jalen Wilson in the second round. Clowney and Wilson are contributors on the current roster, but Whitehead is already off the team.

The trio played a combined 68 games in their rookie season, which is well below the number of games that the 2025 crop should produce. In terms of production, both Clowney and Wilson averaged over five points per game; Egor Demin and Drake Powell are the only current rookies averaging more than five points per game.

The 2025 class has noticeably more opportunities than the 2023 class, but their current production hasn’t surpassed that of the 2023 class.

Looking back at 2021, the four-man class of Cam Thomas, Kessler Edwards, Marcus Zegarowski and RaiQuan Gray may not have the projected depth of the 2025 crop, but it did have more production than 2023.

While three of the rookies from 2021 were second-round picks, the quartet still managed to combine for 116 games played in year one. Thomas and Edwards led the way, each scoring over five points per game.

So far this season, only two of the Nets’ rookies have seen consistent playing time and had solid production –– Demin and Powell. Ben Saraf began the season in the starting lineup, but struggled to find his offense and was removed from the rotation.

Brooklyn’s rebuilding identity this season is so foreign to the organization that just because Nolan Traoré, Danny Wolf and Saraf are out of the rotation currently, it doesn’t mean they won’t be contributors in the long run.