The Brooklyn Nets are in their first full offseason as a rebuilding team and they have four first-round picks in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft to jumpstart the talent acquisition process. From the time of this writing until the Draft, Brooklyn will be focused on the predraft process, but there are other ways for the franchise to get better this summer.
Aside from the Draft, the Nets will be able to use free-agency and the trade market to improve the team, especially if there are specific needs that the team has following the Draft. Once the Draft has passed, teams and players will be able to focus on what is going to happen for next season, specifically for players that are wondering whether they need a change of scenery.
Brooklyn, along with almost every team in the league, is focused on what Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo will do in terms of his decision to stay in Milwaukee or go elsewhere. However, there are other players that could be on the move in one way or another and one of those guys happens to be a player that used to play in Brooklyn: Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen.
The Mock Trade
Nets receive: Jarrett Allen, Jaylon Tyson, and a 2031 first-round pick (top-14-protected)
Cavaliers receive: Cam Johnson
Would The Nets Do This Trade?
The Nets come into this offseason with plenty of needs due to the fact that they are still in the early stages of their rebuild and are still looking for the players that the team will build around heading into the future. Johnson is one of the few players that Brooklyn is placing their stake on, so to speak, but he is far from untouchable as the franchise is looking for its next superstar.
However, Johnson was the subject of many trade rumors due to his game fitting with almost every team in the league and his being on a cap-friendly contract with two years and $43 million left on the deal. Nets general manager Sean Marks spoke on how important Johnson was to the team in terms of his play and his veteran presence, but Marks presumably wouldn’t let that get in the way of a good deal, especially if Johnson can join a contending team like the Cavaliers.
Allen is one of the better centers in the league after coming off another solid season with averages of 13.5 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks per game while shooting 70.6% from the field and 71.8% from the free-throw line. Brooklyn is familiar with Allen and his game after he spent most of his first four season in the league with the Nets, a time when he was considered one of the better defensive players in the Association.
Tyson, the 20th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, is coming off a pedestrian rookie season after he averaged 3.6 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.9 assists per contest on 43.0/34.5/79.2 shooting splits while playing just 9.6 minutes per appearance. While none of those numbers pop off the page, it’s important to note that Tyson was playing for a Cavaliers team that made it to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals while being behind Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, and Ty Jerome at the guard spots.
Getting the 2031 first-round pick that would be Lottery protected would basically amount to nothing for the Nets because Cleveland could be terrible or really good six years from now, but it would just depend on how the franchise builds from there. Even if the pick was somewhere between 15 and 19, the main sell of the deal for Brooklyn would be getting Allen and Tyson and building from there.
A Different Perspective
The idea for this mock trade article came from Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes as he was exploring different players that could be traded this offseason for various reasons. While there hasn’t been much reporting around the Cavaliers as it pertains to Allen, losing in the second round is something that Cleveland is trying to prevent from happening again and that could lead to personnel changes.
Here’s part of what Hughes had to say about a possible trade like this happening between the Nets and Cavaliers:
“Another postseason disappointment, this one coming in the wake of a 64-win regular season, could spur the Cavaliers to reorient the roster around Evan Mobley as the full-time center. That’d mean moving on from Allen, replacing him with a capable frontcourt shooter and scorer in Johnson… The Cavs’ inclusion of Tyson and a protected future first is based on the assumption that they’re the ones initiating talks because they’re the more desperate party. Brooklyn held onto Johnson through last year’s deadline and would presumably need real enticement beyond Allen (whom it would likely flip in another deal) to agree to a Johnson move.”