{"id":584653,"date":"2026-02-05T19:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/584653\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:07:56","slug":"brooklyns-move-after-ochai-agbaji-trade-should-interest-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/584653\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn&#8217;s move after Ochai Agbaji trade should interest contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/brooklyn-nets\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Nets<\/a> have requested waivers on <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/haywood-highsmith\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Haywood Highsmith<\/a>, the team announced Thursday. The move comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/brooklyn-nets\/grading-nets-ochai-agbaji-trade-with-raptors\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Nets acquired Ochai Agbaji and a 2032 second-round pick from the Toronto Raptors<\/a> on Wednesday. Waiving Highsmith brings Brooklyn&#8217;s roster down to 15 players.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/brooklyn-nets\/grading-nets-haywood-highsmith-trade-heat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Highsmith joined the Nets alongside a second-round pick<\/a> this summer in a salary dump move by the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/miami-heat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Miami Heat<\/a>. However, the veteran never appeared in a game for Brooklyn after suffering a setback during his recovery from offseason meniscus surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Once he clears waivers, Highsmith will hit the free agent market. If healthy, he could generate interest from numerous contenders.<\/p>\n<p>Could Haywood Highsmith help a contender after being waived by Nets?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3539664\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Haywood-Highsmith-1.jpg\" alt=\"Miami Heat forward Haywood Highsmith (24) watches his shot against the Philadelphia 76ers during the second quarter at Kaseya Center.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\"  \/>Sam Navarro-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Highsmith could be a valuable addition to a contender&#8217;s bench as a capable defender and three-point shooter with playoff experience. He made 194 appearances with 79 starts over his last three seasons with the Heat, averaging 5.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists while shooting 37.8 percent from three.<\/p>\n<p>Most notably, the 28-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/highsha01.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">has played in<\/a> 35 playoff games, including 18 appearances during Miami&#8217;s 2023 finals run. He shot 40.4 percent from three during the postseason with the Heat.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/brooklyn-nets\/nets-haywood-highsmith-recieves-jordi-fernandez-injury-update\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Highsmith&#8217;s health for the rest of the season<\/a> will be the top question surrounding his free agent market. After undergoing meniscus surgery in August, the forward\u00a0suffered a setback in his recovery in October. He participated in individual workouts with Nets coaches, but as of early January, had yet to progress to contact drills or five-on-five scrimmages.<\/p>\n<p>March 1st is the last day free agents can sign with a team and be eligible for the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets have requested waivers on Haywood Highsmith, the team announced Thursday. The move comes after the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,2293,189,6,671,2144],"class_list":{"0":"post-584653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-haywood-highsmith","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nets","16":"tag-reporting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116019597951911298","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}