NBA 2025 Offseason Check-In: Brooklyn Nets

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Brooklyn Nets.

Free agent signings

• Day’Ron Sharpe: Two years, $12,500,000. Second-year team option. Re-signed using cap room. Waived right to veto trade.
• Ziaire Williams: Two years, $12,500,000. Second-year team option. Re-signed using cap room. Waived right to veto trade.
• Cam Thomas: One year, $5,993,172. Re-signed using Bird rights. Accepted qualifying offer.
• Fanbo Zeng: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Yuri Collins: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($85K). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Collins has since been waived.
• D’Andre Davis: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($85K). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Davis has since been waived.
• David Muoka: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($85K). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Muoka has since been waived.
• Terry Roberts: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($25K). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Tre Scott: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($45K). Signed using minimum salary exception.

Trades

• Acquired either the Clippers’ 2026 second-round pick or the most favorable of the Celtics’, Pacers’, and Heat’s 2026 second-round picks (whichever is least favorable; from Rockets) and the Celtics’ 2030 second-round pick (from Rockets) in a seven-team trade in exchange for the draft rights to Adou Thiero (No. 36 pick; to Lakers).
• Acquired Terance Mann (from Hawks) and the draft rights to Drake Powell (No. 22 pick; from Hawks) in a three-team trade in exchange for cash ($1.1MM; to Celtics).
• Acquired Michael Porter Jr. and the Nuggets’ 2032 first-round pick from the Nuggets in exchange for Cameron Johnson.
• Acquired Haywood Highsmith and the Heat’s 2032 second-round pick from the Heat in exchange for the Nets’ 2026 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
• Acquired Kobe Bufkin from the Hawks in exchange for cash ($110K).

Draft picks

• 1-8: Egor Demin
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $31,340,681).
• 1-19: Nolan Traore
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $18,463,882).
• 1-22: Drake Powell
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $16,723,991).
• 1-26: Ben Saraf
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $14,806,815).
• 1-27: Danny Wolf
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $14,384,199).

Two-way signings

• Tyson Etienne
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee.
• E.J. Liddell
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee.

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Reece Beekman (Magic)
• De’Anthony Melton (Warriors)
• D’Angelo Russell (Mavericks)
• Trendon Watford (Sixers)

Other roster moves

• Exercised team option on Jalen Wilson ($2,221,677; partial guarantee of $88,075).
• Exercised team option on Tyrese Martin ($2,191,897; non-guaranteed).
• Waived Dariq Whitehead (guaranteed $3,262,560 salary).
• Waived Keon Johnson ($217,614 partial guarantee).
• Waived Maxwell Lewis ($100,000 partial guarantee).
• Waived Drew Timme (non-guaranteed contract).
• Waived Tosan Evbuomwan (two-way contract).

Salary cap situation

• Operating below the cap ($154.6MM).
• Carrying approximately $141.2MM in salary.
• Hard-capped at $207,824,000.
• Approximately $13.4MM in cap room available.
• Full room exception ($8,781,000) available.

The offseason so far

The Nets ostensibly went into full rebuilding mode during the 2024 offseason. They traded away Mikal Bridges and entered that fall projected by oddsmakers to be the NBA’s worst team. But apparently no one told Jordi Fernandez that Brooklyn was supposed to be quite that bad. The new head coach led the Nets to nine wins in their first 19 games, getting nearly halfway to the team’s projected over/under win total (19.5) before November was over.

The Nets lost a little steam after that solid start, especially once reliable veterans like Dennis Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith were traded away. But they remained competitive all season long, winning six of seven games during one stretch right before the All-Star break and finishing the year with a 26-56 record. It was bad, but not bad enough to earn a pick in the top half of the lottery. While the Nets entered June armed with four picks in the first round of the 2025 draft, none of those picks would be higher than their own selection at No. 8.

As the only team holding that many first-round picks and the only team with significant cap room available this offseason, it seemed obvious what sort of approach the still-rebuilding Nets would take to the summer. The general expectation was that they’d probably make a couple of their first-round picks while looking to roll at least one or two of them over to a future year, and that they’d use their cap room to take on unwanted contracts and continue stockpiling future draft assets in trades.

Half of that equation played out as expected. The Nets didn’t sign a single outside free agent to a guaranteed contract, instead using their cap space to take on salary in trades.

They acquired Terance Mann (owed $47MM over the next three seasons) from Atlanta along with a first-round pick. They swapped Cameron Johnson (two years and $44.1MM left) for Michael Porter Jr. (two years, $79.1MM) while getting a future unprotected future first-rounder from Denver in the process. And they took on Haywood Highsmith‘s expiring $5.6MM contract along with a future second-round pick in order to help get the Heat out of the tax.

While it won’t necessarily be easy to flip any of those players for positive value down the road, all three have proven to be solid rotation vets in the past and could absolutely rebuild their value in the wake of a down year (in Mann’s case) or an injury (for Porter and Highsmith). I wouldn’t be shocked if the Nets end up being able to extract a second-round pick in exchange for Highsmith a few months from now, for instance, after getting one simply to acquire him over the summer. The years left on Mann’s contract and Porter’s sizable cap hits will make it more difficult to acquire positive assets for them later this season or in a future year, but it’s not impossible.

The Nets’ use of their cap room offered no surprises, but their approach to the draft absolutely did. The first-round selection they acquired from Atlanta along with Mann was this year’s 22nd overall pick, giving Brooklyn a total of five first-rounders. And while they did reportedly explore trade options with several of those picks, the Nets ultimately kept all five of them, drafting Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf, and Danny Wolf at Nos. 8, 19, 22, 26, and 27, respectively.

That approach to the draft was, quite literally, unprecedented — no team in NBA history had ever used five first-round picks in the same draft before. Clubs typically don’t like bringing in too many rookies at once since it’s not considered the best developmental situation for a young player, but the Nets are taking their chances and putting a lot of faith in Fernandez and his staff.

It’s also hard not to read the strategy as general manager Sean Marks‘ way of saying: “That top-five pick we weren’t quite bad enough to get in 2025? We’re getting it in 2026.”

There are still a few veterans on this roster, including the three aforementioned trade acquisitions (Mann, Porter, and Highsmith), as well as starting center Nic Claxton. But Brooklyn will likely be the NBA’s youngest team, and getting to 26 wins again with this group will be a tall order for Fernandez. That’s why it came as no great shock when team owner Joe Tsai spoke recently about a “good pick” in 2026 being a top priority for the Nets and strongly hinted that the club was preparing to lose enough to position itself well in the draft lottery.

While Brooklyn didn’t add any outside free agents this offseason, the club did bring back three of its own — Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams returned on matching two-year, $12.5MM contracts with second-year team options, while Cam Thomas accepted his $6MM qualifying offer as a restricted free agent.

The negotiations with that trio made two things clear: The Nets value the flexibility to potentially operate with significant cap room again next summer, and they don’t necessarily view any of those three players as long-term keepers. Because he signed his qualifying offer, Thomas has an implicit no-trade clause this season and can’t be moved without his approval, but Sharpe and Williams each waived his right to veto a trade, so either one – or both – could be on the move before February’s deadline.

Up next

The Nets have taken steps toward addressing their roster crunch by waiving Drew Timme, who was on a non-guaranteed contract, and Dariq Whitehead, a former first-round pick whose $3.26MM salary for 2025/26 was fully guaranteed.

Timme’s release came as no real surprise despite his strong finish last season — he has played almost exclusively in the G League since going undrafted out of Gonzaga in 2023. Waiving Whitehead wasn’t quite as obvious, but injuries have derailed his NBA career so far, and the Nets are in position to eat some guaranteed salary due to their position relative to the cap (and the minimum salary floor).

Brooklyn still has one move to make in the coming days, with 14 players on guaranteed contracts, Jalen Wilson on a partially guaranteed deal, and Tyrese Martin on a non-guaranteed pact. Usually in this scenario, the decision would come down to Wilson or Martin for financial reasons, but it might actually make sense for the Nets to keep both players and waive someone with a guaranteed salary — doing so would allow them to remain above the minimum salary floor without needing to make any additional moves.

With Whitehead no longer on the roster though, there’s not an obvious release candidate among those 14 players with guaranteed deals. Eight of them were either just drafted or re-signed this summer; Mann and Porter have too much guaranteed money left on their contracts; and starting center Nic Claxton obviously isn’t going to be cut. That leaves Highsmith, Noah Clowney, and Kobe Bufkin.

Waiving any of those three players likely wouldn’t have a major impact on the rotation, but the Nets just traded for Bufkin without getting anything else in the deal, which suggests they probably want to take a longer look at him. I haven’t gotten the sense that the team is prepared to give up on Clowney. Highsmith, meanwhile could bring back positive value later in the season if he gets fully healthy after undergoing offseason knee surgery, as noted above.

We’ll see what the Nets do — if either Wilson or Martin ends up as the odd man out, I wonder if the team would guarantee that player’s salary while cutting him in order to avoid falling back below the minimum floor. Staying above that threshold is important because it assures Brooklyn will get its share of the end-of-season payout from the NBA’s taxpaying teams.

The Nets also have an open two-way slot alongside Tyson Etienne and E.J. Liddell. Camp invitee Fanbo Zeng looks to me like the best candidate to fill it, but Timme could also return on a two-way deal if he clears waivers.