There are few things more important to the Brooklyn Nets — maybe none — than their draft stash starting with the five first rounders in 2025. Going into the 2025 Draft, they had 16 firsts and 16 seconds. Coming out of it, they have 13 firsts and 18 seconds. That’s Sam Presti/Oklahoma City Thunder territory.

There’s little doubt that the Nets have done well in Sean Marks era up till now. From the time Marks took over in February 2016 till 2024, he never had a pick higher than No. 20 — and that was in Marks first year, Caris LeVert. As Brian Lewis points out Sunday in his column, the numbers agree with the eye test.

Since Marks arrived late in the 2015-16 season, he has made a total of 15 draft picks. Ten of those have outperformed their draft slot, measured by win shares on Basketball-Reference.com. However imperfect that may be, the hit rate is impressive.

The misses, like Dzanan Musa, were outnumbered by the hits such as starting center Nic Claxton, who was drafted just 31st but has the second-most win shares in the 2019 class; Day’Ron Sharpe; Cam Thomas; and even second-rounder Jalen Wilson. All-Star Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert were also hits before being traded.

Now, though, from 2025 till 2032, the stakes are much much higher. In the first rebuild, the Nets put a premium on luring superstars — the Big Three — to Brooklyn, even trading first rounders in 2019 and 2020 to make room for KD, Kyrie and James (plus a few friends.) The Nets have abandoned that strategy, of course, and are now fixed on building organically and on a sustainable basis.

As B.J. Johnson, Marks No. 2 and the man who has run the Draft and scouting operations the past five years, said in the second episode of SCOUT, “A lot of work went into what Brooklyn is going to be in the future. Regardless of who comes in here, we’re not going to change. They’ve got to adjust to us. Overall, that’s what it’s about here.” A response to what happened with Big Three? You bet.

The reviews of the first year of the process, Draft Night 2025, were not positive, as we have written and as Lewis reiterates Sunday. In short, using all five firsts — an NBA first; taking Egor Demin at No. 8, lower than where most draftniks mocked him; using three of the five on players who could be described as point guards and a fourth on a point center; and failing to move higher in the lottery, were all cited. More than one pundit has slammed the Nets and even made fun of them on national TV.

Marks has kept his counsel on the criticism, but knowing how he’s reacting to similar takes in the past, he almost certainly considers it “noise” and indeed the success of the Draft, despite what’s been said, won’t be known for months if not years.

Indeed, one league decision maker had this to say to ND about the choice of Dëmin: “Egor will be a stud, Very, very good basketball player,” he said. “People who don’t understand the game won’t get it. You’ll see development sooner than year’s end. But in three to four years when you have actual players around him, you will really see.”

Still as Lewis notes, there has been a big turnover in the Nets front office and the staff who scouted and drafted players as well as developed those late picks are gone.

Assistant GM Jeff Peterson and director of basketball operations Ryan Gisriel both left for Charlotte as GM and VP of basketball operations. The Nets also lost scouting director J.R. Holden to Detroit, development director Adam Caporn to Washington and cap guru Matt Tellem (who found a way to squeeze Claxton, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving under the cap) all within a year.

It doesn’t end there either. The Nets who have a great reputation for their physical resources at HSS Training Center have had a big turnover in the performance team. None of the last four performance directors have lasted more than year, per two league sources. That has continued his summer. The director of high performance and the director of rehab are out.

“They have the most resources in the NBA,” said another league source familiar with the performance team and generally someone who’s had high praise for the front office. “Yet, they keep doing the same thing. It’s an easy thing to get right as well.”

Of course, the Nets did set a franchise record for games missed to injury/illness (374) and finished second this season to the Philadelphia 76ers (397), per InStreetClothes.com. That doesn’t mean, as Lewis reported, that their replacements or the other newbies at 168 39th Street aren’t going to be as good or better than those lost. And, sure, there is always turnover in NBA front offices as there are in every business.

The question now, however, is that with so many picks in the future — and there are reports they are looking for even more draft assets in salary dumps — the current staff will have to at least match the record that produced solid players, even future stars, with limited opportunities. The team’s future depends on it.

Rookie haul puts Sean Marks under greater Nets microscope with plenty of draft capital remaining https://nypost.com/2025/08/09/sports/rookie-haul-puts-sean-mark-under-greater-nets-microscope/