The Brooklyn Nets have had an interesting offseason to this point as they have been active in the trade market all while taking five players in the 2025 NBA Draft. Within the past few days, Brooklyn has announced the re-signings of center Day’Ron Sharpe and guard Cam Thomas, but it seems like the franchise is not done making moves prior to the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
“Brooklyn’s recent moves are significant because they likely signal that they don’t have another big imbalanced trade coming,” NBA cap expert Yossi Gozlan wrote on his “Third Apron” website (h/t to NetsDaily). The moves that Gozlan were referring to were the Nets re-signing the aforementioned Sharpe and Thomas while also waiving forward Tosan Evbuomwan and signing forward EJ Liddell to a Two-Way contract.
“As detailed last month, they already used $36 million in two separate trades to take on players with multiple years left on their contracts, along with a first-round pick in each deal,” Gozlan continued. “They may be looking at something smaller scale with minor draft equity… So, in all likelihood, they will facilitate another salary dump similar to their (Haywood) Highsmith acquisition before the season begins.”
So far this offseason, Brooklyn has pulled off three trades that have netted them draft capital in exchange for renting out their league-leading cap space. The Nets acquired forward Terance Mann from the Atlanta Hawks along with the 22nd overall pick in the Draft (forward Drake Powell), forward Michael Porter Jr. from the Denver Nuggets to pair with a 2032 first-round pick, and forward Haywood Highsmith and a 2032 second-round pick from the Miami Heat.
Heading into this offseason, the Nets seemed focused on retaining most of their free-agents while taking advantage of the fact that many teams were looking to ways to shed payroll. As Gozlan noted, Brooklyn could be surveying the landscape for teams looking to decrease their salary commitments prior to the trade deadline as they continue to rebuild their organization for the future.