The Nets’ season offered plenty of patience, but not much validation.

Michael Porter Jr. as an All-Star? No.

A top-five pick after a 20-win season? No.

A top-three pick in the 2026 NBA Draft? No.

And now, after making NBA history with five first-round picks, an All-Rookie selection? No again.

The NBA announced its 2025-26 All-Rookie teams Wednesday, and the Nets were shut out despite entering the season with the league’s largest rookie class. Brooklyn selected Egor Dëmin at No. 8, Nolan Traoré at No. 19, Drake Powell at No. 22, Ben Saraf at No. 26 and Danny Wolf at No. 27 in last June’s draft.

None made the first team. None made the second. Only Dëmin appeared anywhere on the final ballot, receiving two second-team votes for two total points. That left the Nets’ highest-drafted rookie 16th in voting, a result that doesn’t define the class but frames how much work remains.

The All-Rookie first team went to VJ Edgecombe, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Dylan Harper and Cedric Coward. The second team went to Derik Queen, Maxime Raynaud, Jeremiah Fears, Ace Bailey and Collin Murray-Boyles. The first team included picks No. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11. The second team included picks No. 5, 7, 9, 13 and 42.

The Nets had No. 8 and four more first-rounders behind him. None cracked the top 10. For a franchise selling development, patience and the value of a historic rookie class, that isn’t a fatal outcome. It’s also not nothing.

The fairest defense is obvious. The Nets didn’t draft five rookies built to chase instant recognition. Several were long-term plays. Four of the five were among the NBA’s 19 youngest players. Dëmin, the group’s best first-year performer, missed the final stretch of the season. Had he stayed healthy, maybe he would’ve climbed closer to the All-Rookie teams. Maybe.

Even then, the voting tells a blunt story. Two second-team votes is better than being ignored. It isn’t league-wide validation. That’s where the conversation around the Nets has to stay balanced. No one should treat the All-Rookie shutout as a verdict on Dëmin, Traoré, Powell, Saraf or Wolf. All-Rookie teams aren’t career guarantees. Some players who make them fade. Others who miss them grow into far more.

But the Nets can’t wave away the optics, either. They controlled one-sixth of the first round and didn’t produce one All-Rookie selection. They drafted five rookies onto a bad team with available opportunity and still finished with only one player receiving any votes. A rebuilding franchise that needs internal growth to become more than a talking point should take that checkpoint seriously.

The Nets don’t need all five first-rounders to hit. That was never realistic. But they do need one or two of them to begin looking like future rotation fixtures, if not more. They need Dëmin’s flashes to become consistent production. They need Traoré, Powell, Saraf and Wolf to move beyond the promise attached to their draft slots.

Year 1 brought youth, injuries and the challenge of developing five first-rounders at once. Year 2 has to show more.