The first two milestones of trade season have passed. Monday was the first day that the 82 players signed in the summer could be dealt, bringing to 90% the percentage of players in the league trade pool. Then Tuesday was the last day a team could trade for player knowing they could turn him around at the deadline.
So for the next six weeks or so, from now until February 5 at 3:00 p.m. ET, it’s trade
rumor season. As any NBA pundit can tell you from experience, the percentage of rumors that actually become real trades is very low and most trades take place just prior to the deadline. Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline. Indeed, trade machines were created because there’s a market for them.
At the moment, most of the traction around the Brooklyn Nets concern two, maybe three players. Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas top the list with some but rumors about Nic Claxton as well.
Erik Slater reported Wednesday that the Nets are open to taking calls on MPJ. Evan Sidery thinks the Pistons might be a landing spot to watch for him and Brian Lewis and Jake Fischer again note that Thomas’s market is bare … and
everyone is reporting the Nets are trolling the league for more salary dumps if they can get Brooklyn more draft assets or a good young player.
MPJ and Thomas of course are on different ends of value. Porter is having his best season ever and at 27 is entering the prime of his career. The 24-year-old sharpshooter, on the other hand, seems to have few fans around the league and now has lost 70 games to hamstring strains over the past two seasons to four separate but recurring incidents: 53 games total last season and now 17 this one. It shouldn’t be surprising that Sean Marks & co. are taking calls on
any of their 17 rostered players. They’re in a deep rebuild. As for Thomas, it seems like he may have played his last game in black-and-white. There’s at this point no date for his return and Jordi Fernandez pointedly said earlier this week that if he does return, he’ll likely have a different and probably lesser role.
Deals involving either would be tricky.
One reason that is that the Nets want to stay above the salary floor and avoid the sanctions applied to any team whose payroll dips 10% below the salary cap or $139.2 million. The Nets payroll is now at $139.4 million, meaning their cushion is tiny and they’d have to find a way to replace all that salary. Finding $6.0 million, Thomas salary, wouldn’t be that difficult, but Porter earns $38.1 million. The Nets would have a single business day to get back under the floor.
Thomas is in a bad place. He exercised his qualifying offer and passed on offers of $9.5 million plus incentives over one year and $30 million over two with the second year a team option. He’d have veto power over any trade but would lose his Bird Rights with his new team, limiting his earning power going forward.
Moving Claxton’s $25.4 million would also require tackling the salary floor issue, but while there have been recurring rumors of this team or that being interested in him, there hasn’t been a lot suggesting the Nets are interested in moving him. That obviously could change.
Of course, the big debate about whether to deal him or MPJ for more first round picks centers on whether trading them would salvage the tank and retain their chances of getting one of the top three picks in the 2026 Draft: Darry Peterson, the 6’5” Kansas guard, A.J. Dybantsa, the 6’9” BYU forward or Cam Boozer, the 6’10” Duke big. They’re all currently seen as franchise-changers, each better than Cooper Flagg! While the top of the draft is filled with other solid prospects, those three are seen as being a class of their own.
On the other side of the debate are those who abhor the tank or simply believe that the 27-year-old Porter and/0r the 26-year-old Claxton are young enough to be part of a Nets rebuild framework going forward. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that no matter where the Net finish they’ll wind up with one of the top three or four picks — Caleb Wilson, the 6’10” North Carolina small forward would be a solid consolation prize. With the sixth worst record, they have a nine percent chance at the overall No. 1 and a 37.5% at walking away with a top four pick
six months from now.
Zach Harper of the Athletic thinks that the tank is unlikely to be affected that much by rumored trades.
“Nets don’t necessarily have to worry too much about lottery odds,” he wrote this week. “Things should correct themselves naturally with battles for the bottom of the cellar. But New Orleans and Indiana are worse than people thought they’d be. That has to have Brooklyn sweat it out.”
That said, insiders tell NetsDaily that there’s is no indication that Brooklyn is going to stray from its plan — abandon the “probabilities” of tanking in pursuit of a top pick. After all, Joe Tsai told a Los Angeles tech summit in September “We have one pick in 2026, and we hope to get a good pick. So you can predict what kind of strategy we will use for this season. But we have a very young team.”
Whatever the Nets plan, they should be well-prepared. They already command:
- 32 draft picks — 13 first rounders, all but one unprotected and 10 of which are tradeable; two unprotected first round swaps; 19 second rounders, all of which are tradeable;
- $15.3 million in salary cap space most in the NBA. They’re also $48.7 million below the luxury tax threshold, $55.8 million below the first apron and $67.7 million below the second;
- $8.8 million MLE which can be used if Nets go over cap.
- Two non-guaranteed contracts in Tyrese Martin and Jalen Wilson which can be waived by January 7;
- Two players with team options in Zaire Williams and Day’Ron Sharpe;
- Veteran wings on reasonable contracts in Haywood Highsmith and to a lesser degree, Terance Mann’
- An open two-way roster spot likely to be filled in next two weeks.
But Michael Porter Jr. is their biggest trade asset if they chose to make big moves. He is not just averaging 25.6 points on 50/40/81 shooting splits along with 7.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists. He’s assumed the role of leader on the league’s youngest roster. A few days ago, Fernandez suggested that Porter, who he knows well from working with him in Denver, is likely to get ever better across the board.
“I think that’s very important because Mike’s 27. It’s not like we’re just developing the young guys. If they don’t get better, it’s on us as coaches. I think Mike, from the defense. the rebounding, his stance, his physicality, and then offense, finishing his cuts, letting it fly, I think he’s shot more 3s than he’s ever shot per game. Obviously, it’s a different role, but he has to do that for the team because he’s so good and creates attention that helps our offensive rebounding, it helps his teammates, so all of those things are important.”
That doesn’t sound like the head coach wants to lose his star.
