The Brooklyn Nets (21-37) have had an interesting season as they have done some of what was expected of them coming into the 2024-25 NBA season. This past offseason saw Brooklyn trade Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for a bevy of first-round picks while also doing a deal with the Houston Rockets to get some of their own picks in anticipation of a rebuild.
With that as the backdrop for the Nets coming into this campaign, many expected Brooklyn to trade away their other veterans in Dennis Schroder, Cam Johnson, and Dorian Finney-Smith with the goal in accruing more draft capital and/or young players to evaluate. Brooklyn mostly achieved that goal as they traded away Schroder and Finney-Smith along with eventually buying out Ben Simmons while deciding to hold on to Johnson.
However, due to the Nets holding on to all of those veterans to begin the season, Brooklyn now finds itself in the range of missing on the best prospects for the 2025 NBA Draft in Duke forward Cooper Flagg, Rutgers forward Ace Bailey, and Rutgers guard Dylan Harper. While many inside and outside of the Nets’ fanbase lament Brooklyn missing out on some of the aforementioned names, there is possibly light at the end of the tunnel.
“The talent level this year is higher in terms of ability, even though they’re younger. There was no Cooper Flagg in last year’s draft, or even a Harper or Bailey or VJ [Edgecombe]. There’s a lot more upside in these prospects. With no disrespect to a guy like [Zaccharie] Risacher, last year was a tough year to pick first; in this draft, [Risacher] may not even go in the top five,” ESPN’s Jeremy Woo recently wrote about the projected top half of the 2025 Draft lottery.