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[Brooklyn Nets]

Sean Marks: Brooklyn Nets don’t want to ‘lock ourselves into being a 6-7 seed’

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Alongside Head Coach Jordi Fernández, GM Sean Marks reflected on the 2024-25, and more crucially, revealed major hints about the team’s future plans.

General Manager Sean Marks actually said the damn thing.

Following a predictable, if slightly more competent than expected season for the Brooklyn Nets in 2024-25, Marks and Head Coach Jordi Fernández took the podium at HSS Training Facility for their joint exit interview on Monday afternoon.

A season in which Jalen Wilson and Keon Johnson were the team’s two leading minute-getters produced a 26-56 record, and the sixth-best odds heading into the NBA Draft Lottery. These 82 games, the very hiring of Fernández, and Marks’ decision to re-acquire Brooklyn’s own first-rounders in 2025 and 2026 last summer have signaled a full-scale rebuild.

But because the Nets got off to a fanbase-paralyzing 9-10 start, because they kept Cam Johnson through the trade deadline, and because reports of their interest in Giannis Antetokounmpo are still surfacing, Marks had to answer the following question.

What qualities are you looking for in a star trade?

If it seems a little early to be talking about star trades, it is. The Brooklyn Nets have yet to make a single draft pick since signaling rebuild last summer, and yet, Antetokounmpo’s name has been whispered about. Does the front office just love him, or do they just have little interest in losing plenty of games over the next couple seasons?

So, after the ninth-year GM noted Brooklyn’s next star must “fit our culture,” he took an opportunity to clarify Brooklyn’s long-term thinking:

“If you’re going after max-level talent, they have automatically and absolutely change the trajectory of your team. This can’t be like let’s go get this [guy] and lock ourselves into being a 6-7 seed. When we go all-in, you’re going in to compete at the highest level and contend.” [Emphasis mine]

This seems to answer the question Brian Lewis asked in his New York Post article that name-dropped Giannis at the beginning of the month: “Are potential lesser targets like Ja Morant, Domantas Sabonis, Trae Young or LaMelo Ball worth emptying the proverbial clip for if it means abandoning all hope for the Greek Freak?”

Marks’ quote is about as close to a definitive ‘no’ as you’re going to get, and it may reinforce the idea that the Nets are committed to a long-term rebuild. It may even suggest that, as much as Brooklyn is enamored with Antetokounmpo, now is not the time.

“I think we need to be opportunistic,” Marks said when discussing the upcoming free agent period. “In this market we’re always going to have various different free agents and opportunities thrown at us. Just simply being in a top five market in the league, that’s going to happen. We don’t want to get sped up. We’ve talked multiple times about being systematic and strategic in how we build here. We know we have 15 first round picks in the next six, seven years; so there’s a lot of draft assets at stake. There’s a lot of cap room at stake, and how we use that, it’s probably too early to determine.”

Indeed, Brooklyn is projected to have over $50 million in cap room this summer, in their own stratosphere of flexibility relative to the rest of the NBA...

“There’s only one team that has a lot of cap space and they may want to do a slower rebuild and aren’t looking to spend it all now,” a veteran agent told ESPN. “I’ve never seen a free agency where only one team has real cap space in my career. These free agents are f—ed.” https://t.co/y2Hnx2uKRQ

— NetsDaily (@NetsDaily) March 30, 2025​

Before the Nets peer out the window, though, they need to do some housekeeping themselves. Between their restricted and unrestricted free agents, they have seven players set to at least test the market, and that’s not even counting the club options they could decline.

Whether it’s re-signing players like Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe or nailing their 2025 NBA Draft, Sean Marks professed the importance of homegrown talent, specifically under the new CBA.

“I do think it is important to have guys under contract that you control the contracts, so to speak. You drafted them, you developed them, and they got to their second contract under your watch. It’s difficult when you’re trying to acquire max-level talent on max contracts. Those days are probably gone of going and getting 2-3 max free agents and so forth. Those are gonna be more difficult to do, but I think it’s important to have some value contracts on your roster.”

It certainly sounds like the Nets have interest in retaining much of the team that won just 26 games this season, and judging by the players’ comments on Monday, the feeling is mutual. Thomas, Sharpe, Ziaire Williams, and D’Angelo Russell were all full of praise for the organization, and we’ll have more on the players’ comments in a separate story.

Their reasons, though, were clear. Head Coach Jordi Fernández once again got rave reviews, not just from his players, but his boss as well.

When asked why free agents around the league may want to play in Brooklyn, Marks said: “I think the sales pitch starts with the guy to my right. I think we’ve, we’ve talked about many players and what they’ve said about Jordi and his staff, I think that’s a huge sales pitch. They want to have coaches be up-front, honest with them, and they feel that, to be quite frank, he’s in it with us.”

While the May 12 draft lottery and subsequent decision-making from Brooklyn will steer the course of this rebuilding ship, one thing seems clear: They hired the right guy last summer.

As for Fernández, he didn’t speak copiously at the exit interview. Most questions were directed to Sean Marks, who in turn, was as direct as he’s ever been when discussing long-term plans. That’s what we’re here for, right?

But Fernández couldn’t depart for the summer without one last endorsement of — here’s that word again — the culture.

“I think it’s the quality of people that we have, and that’s how you drive the culture every day, and people that are pushing in the same direction. And the one thing that is important is communication. Communicate on how you want to do things, so there’s no different messages. A lot of times, there’s where there can be a little bit of confusion, and at the end of the day, you see this slippage. And I think, like the quality of this group, the human quality has been great.”

As the Philadelphia 76ers lead-frogged Brooklyn in the race to the bottom, and as the Utah Jazz were hopelessly miserable this season, many mock-GMs harangued fellow fans about the finer points of tanking, of how to maximize pick value. And they weren’t wrong to do so; the true rebuild starts this offseason.

However, it appears the Brooklyn Nets had no such organizational dissent. Marks and Fernández, unsurprisingly, presented a unified front on Monday. The season went well, they said, with plenty of player-development wins like Tyrese Martin’s assist:turnover ratio and Ziaire Williams’ 3-point shooting.

Now, according to each, it’s a do-or-die summer, just as every day is do-or-die when building a culture.

That build may take a while. Sean Marks does not seem gung-ho on accelerating the timeline, big-game hunting just to end up in the Play-In Tournament. That was the biggest takeaway from Monday’s exit interviews.

Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/4/14...-want-to-lock-ourselves-into-being-a-6-7-seed

 

[Brooklyn Nets]

3 Takeaways from Brooklyn Nets Season Finale vs New York Knicks

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

At last, we’ve reached what’s surely the longest awaited finish line for this team in some time

Hello, friends.

While today is marked by most as Masters Sunday, Rory and Bryson aren’t the only ones on the back nine this afternoon. Playing their regular season finale, the Brooklyn Nets, to their fans and the “visiting” New York Knicks, opened the Barclays Center doors for a final time.

Brooklyn’s season has been a stark opposite to the sunny, harmonious vibe the tradition like no other brings. Fans were constantly scratching their heads, wondering whether to cheer or sulk after wins. That, combined with a volatile rotation, pesky injuries, and enough Tankathon spins to make you dizzy snipped the strings to the piano playing Augusta. What we got instead felt like a Motörhead record on blast.

It was only right that it ended with the Knicks — the team that put them on this path last summer. While the Mikal Bridges deal remains an absolute fleece in this beat writer’s eyes, the days when the Nets reap the benefits of it are yet to come. What’s important now is Brooklyn getting to the finish line and they accomplished that this afternoon. Here’s how we got there.

It’s Messy as You’d Expect​

Whether due to the players experiencing some form of senioritis on this “last day of school,” or being undermanned at the point guard spot (likely the latter), the Nets were about as sloppy as you’d expect them to be here in game No. 82.

Brooklyn’s 19 giveaways for the game boiled into 31 New York points. They especially struggled in the half court, unable to get Knick defenders moving once penetrating the first line of defense. Instead of driving and kicking for threes, they often drove right into Precious Achiuwa and PJ Tucker.

“It’s hard to win basketball games when that happens,” Jordi Fernández said postgame.

Even on the plays ending in Brooklyn points, the team looked out of sync. Again, this is a more than understandable fault for a group of guys who’ve logged only a handful of minutes together at this level. However, it was also too noticeable to not call out.

We'll take it. pic.twitter.com/HNRWNIis9O

— Collin Helwig (@collinhelwig) April 13, 2025​

Miraculously, it didn’t hinder Brooklyn’s offense for the majority of the game. After two weeks of subzero shooting, the team doused the floor in gasoline before casting a few sparks, posting 66/50 splits at halftime. Those eventually simmered to 51/34 for the game, but still look fair in comparison to what we’ve seen of late.

Had Brooklyn put a better grip on the ball though, they likely get out of here with one more win on the year, as they their final shooting figures were similar to New York’s and they even won on the glass by a deuce. However, they ended up with 12 extra field goal attempts...those came from somewhere.

Wat, Wilson, and Martin Had Gas Left in the Tank​

Combining for over 5,000 minutes of played basketball this year, Trendon Watford, Tyrese Martin, and Jalen Wilson have been workhorses for Brooklyn in this rather unceremonious ride of a season.

“My body definitely feels it,” Martin remarked postgame. “First time, you know, I played this many games in my professional career, especially at this level. So definitely grateful and appreciative of it, but yeah, definitely feeling it.”

But even amid the wear, tear, and lack of playoff-related motivation, he and his fellow veterans saved some juice for this final run.

Martin put in what was one of his more efficient games of the 2024-25 campaign and by extension his career. The combo guard contributed with 20 points while shooting 8-of14 from the field and 2-of-6 from deep. He also flashed some bag work, making a compelling come-from-behind case for most improved Net this season.

add him to the agenda @balldontstop https://t.co/WhLfmJYEdU pic.twitter.com/qO5IZ70yn9

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) April 13, 2025​

Wilson checked the efficiency box as well, going for 18-points while shooting 5-of-8 from deep. Not only did he give the Nets fans sprinkled around the crowd something to savor, but he also glossed up his metrics before turning them in for the year. After shooting 31.9% from deep through March, he shot 52% in April, bringing his percentage for the year to a slightly more respectable 33.7% on 4.6 attempts per game. Considering he fell to No. 51 in the 2023 Draft because scouts doubted his range, that’s a positive.

Watford almost singlehandedly brought Brooklyn one final win, leveraging his size and touch to finish a number of back-to-the-basket takes that helped make it a two point game without about three to go. He tallied 20 points while going 8-of-12 from the field and splashing one of his two attempts from range.

.@trendonw with the smooooth reverse pic.twitter.com/VbVHQWTOpF

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) April 13, 2025​

Whether or not these veterans just ended their season or Brooklyn careers is a question for another today. All three are either free agents or have team options on their contracts after this season. But this afternoon, they were Nets, and damn good ones at that. They didn’t hear no bell, even if you as fans have been listening for it for months now.

These Guys Deserved a Final Win Even if They Didn’t Get it​

Wins do not come easy in this league. The Brooklyn Nets know that better than anyone. Not only did they go just 26-for-82, but almost every one they did secure required extra effort, poise from inexperienced players, and yes, a bit of luck.

Brooklyn wasn’t able to get one more tonight — and if you consider their play on the floor — that’s just. I mean, they gave up a 17-0 run in the third quarter and got turned over more times than a rotisserie chicken. That’s losing basketball and they know it.

Alas, there’s always more to a season than wins and losses. Words like “fight” and “grit” have echoed the Barclays Center ceaselessly since September, and while stale and even a bit cliché by now, that doesn’t mean they’re not real or important factors.

The Nets may not have put up their best fight today, but that shouldn’t take away from the bare knuckle slug-fest they put themselves and their opponents through over and over again this year. They made their opponents sweat, bleed, and even unexpectedly introduced a few to the mat.

And frankly, everyone owes these guys a pat on the back anyway.

Individuals or teams who overachieve are rewarded with praise and jubilation 95% of the time. That’s how it’s supposed to work in sports — and honestly life. But the Nets fell into that unfortunate 5% bucket this year. That’s just how it is in the first year of a rebuild.

So, after a season of grind and grit only to pull in wins that made the fanbase feel indifferent at best, this unit deserved a win at home to close the season — perhaps more than any other squad in recent history. If they couldn’t get that, let’s at least show them the appreciation wins usually evoke. Consider this my virtual tip of the cap.

Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/4/13...rooklyn-nets-season-finale-vs-new-york-knicks

 

[Brooklyn Nets]

New York Liberty take Adja Kane, French stash, with final pick of 2025 WNBA Draft

With the final pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft, the New York Liberty reached deep in the international pool and took Adja Kane. Read about her here.

The spectacle of the 2025 WNBA Draft hardly involved the team of the host city.

After years of trades and pick-swaps that built a championship winner, and a roster poised to repeat this season, the New York Liberty had just one of the 38 selections on Monday night: pick #38,

Just waiting for 38

— Stewie (@breannastewart) April 15, 2025​

With the final selection of the night, GM Jonathan Kolb’s front office took Adja Kane, from France .

Kane turned 20 in March, and is currently competing in her home country’s top women’s basketball league for Landerneau Bretagne Basket. According to Pro Ballers, she averaged 5/4/1 in 20 minutes a night this season, but crucially, blocked over a shot per game.

This helps define her appeal, listed as a skinny, 6’3” center with a plus-wingspan, serious movement skills, and some flashes of touch around the basket...

Adja Kane was had yet to turn 19 while playing this game? I think I get the pick: pic.twitter.com/wzu24R2vCB

— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) April 15, 2025​

“As an organization, we pride ourselves on embracing the global nature of the game and are proactive in assembling a deep group of international talent,” said Kolb in a press release on Monday night. “We had a unique opportunity tonight to select Adja Kane, a talented young player from a strong program in France, who will continue to develop overseas for the next few years with our support from afar.”

That statement confirms the obvious, that Kane will be a draft-and-stash, potentially making her way to training camp in the next few seasons, if all goes according to plan.

Remember Leonie Fiebich was once a stash pick that the New York Liberty traded for, then invested in. In Myles Erhlich’s profile of Fiebich last season, she recounted how the Libs established contact with her while she was playing in Europe: “It seemed like they cared. Whereas, when I was with the other organizations, they didn’t really reach out, or they were not in contact with me. It was the first time that an organization was really interested.”

This isn’t to draw a comparison. Kane, who again, just turned 20, is a long way from playing in the WNBA. Fiebich was 24 when she played her phenomenal rookie season, and already the MVP of the Spanish League.

Kane, who is of Mauritanian descent, was a little-used reserve when she helped France’s U20 team win Eurobasket last year, playing just five minutes in the final game.

Still, there is clear upside, and in a draft environment far less homogenized than the NBA — few teams have the investment in international draft scouting that the Liberty have, and thus, very different-looking draft boards — her slot all the way down at #38 isn’t disqualifying by any stretch.

Kane joins a healthy list of French players the Liberty hold the rights to: Marine Farthoux is a fellow draft stash and a former teammate of Seehia Ridard, who signed a training camp contract with the Liberty...

Seehia Ridard (who signed a training camp contract with NY) and Marine Fauthoux (NY has the draft rights to) during their Basket Landes days in 2022. pic.twitter.com/plgbvWJP8M

— Alford Corriette (@alfcorriette) March 18, 2025​

And of course, fan-favorite Marine Johannes will return stateside this season, re-joining the Liberty after overseas commitments kept her out of the 2024 season.

Whether Adja Kane ever makes it over to the Big Apple, who knows? But the talent is there, and, for now, she seems to be the final move of the New York Liberty’s offseason, as they try to go back-to-back in 2025.

Their regular-season opener is at Barclays Center; they'll face the Las Vegas Aces on May 17.

Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/4/15...ench-stash-with-final-pick-of-2025-wnba-draft

 

[Brooklyn Nets]

Summer of Our Lives: ProfessorB’s final grades

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

In his day job, ProfessorB is an award-winning social scientist and Presidential Laureate. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other major media outlets. But he also dabbles in NetsWorld.

For 20 teams, the NBA season is still underway. But the Brooklyn Nets have finished their year in the shadows, management has put their best face on it, and summer is looming. Nothing left to do but wait hopefully for the draft lottery — and hand out report cards.

Here are some final ratings for each of the 22 players who played at least 100 minutes for the Nets this season. (The team had 27 players under contract at one point or another, tying a franchise record.)

The total ratings are a weighted average of Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM) and LEBRON, two of the NBA’s most trusted overall performance metrics. Both estimate how many points each player added on offense and subtracted on defense per 100 possessions. (Both are imprecise, especially for players with limited minutes, and there are some significant differences between them. The LEBRON ratings are slower to update and therefore less extreme overall. Nonetheless, the two sets of ratings are highly correlated, and the standard error of the “Total” ratings is about half a point.)

A striking pattern here is the mismatch between minutes and performance. Much of that reflects injuries and trades. But the Nets’ team leaders in total minutes, Jalen Wilson and Keon Johnson, kept getting substantial playing time despite being among the team’s worst performers all season. The same could be said for Tyrese Martin and even Nic Claxton, who was consistently outplayed by Day’Ron Sharpe. Jordi Fernandez started his coaching career preaching “winning habits” and promising that all his players would have to “earn” their minutes—but sometimes that’s not how things turn out in the NBA.

At the other end of the spectrum, four of the Nets’ eight best players were traded or waived during the season. Such is the cost of tanking. Dorian Finney-Smith, Dennis Schroder, and Ben Simmons were all veterans on expiring contracts and presumably not in the team’s future plans, anyway. In exchange for these three, the Nets got D’Angelo Russell, an injured De’Anthony Melton, flyers on Reece Beekman and Maxwell Lewis, and a handful of second-round draft picks.

Killian Hayes was a more puzzling case. The 23-year-old performed surprisingly well on a ten-day contract when the team was desperate for a healthy point guard, posting 9.5 assists and just 2.8 turnovers per 100 possessions. Even his shooting was slightly above team average (true-shooting .559), a significant improvement over the .456 true-shooting that got him bounced from Detroit. Yet Hayes was let go at the end of his ten days—one day too late to be eligible for another team’s playoff roster. Unless he got some sort of quiet promise from the Nets for next season, he was a victim of cruel NBA roster math.

Implications for the off-season? The Nets’ three restricted free agents—Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Ziaire Williams—were all among the top five players still on the roster at season’s end. Expect all three to be back on tradeable contracts next year. Trendon Watford is an unrestricted free agent, but the coaching staff seems enamored with his versatility and potential, and he may well be back, too. Dariq Whitehead had trouble staying on the court and Noah Clowney had trouble living up to the hype from his rookie season; but both are young and promising—and on relatively cheap guaranteed deals. Russell says he wants to return, and he might if the price is right; however, he is essentially interchangeable with several other veteran point guards, including Schroder.

The summer holds more uncertainty for several young Nets with unguaranteed (or only lightly guaranteed) contracts. The most consistent performer among them was Tosan Evbuomwan, a 24-year-old wing on a two-way deal. Wilson, Johnson, Martin, Lewis, and Drew Timme all showed flashes at times, but none really proved that he belongs in the NBA. Which, if any, return may depend on who the Nets add in the draft.

Perhaps the most depressing takeaway from these ratings is the dearth of demonstrated talent on the Nets’ roster from top to bottom. Over the course of the season, no Net was even a full point better than an average NBA player. Most of them were at least a full point worse. (A bit of perspective: MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was 7.5 points better than an average player by this combined measure.) Cam Johnson’s improvement was a bright spot, but it only made him “a quality rotation player” (ranked 111-120) in The Athletic’s end-of-season rating of NBA players.

Sean Marks talks about “being systematic and strategic in how we build.” This season’s results underline the need for patience. The Nets have dug their hole, but have barely begun to lay their foundation.

Source: https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/4/16/24409756/summer-of-our-lives-professorbs-final-grades