The Brooklyn Nets have the opportunity of adding plenty of young talent to the team this summer with their four first-round picks in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft. Brooklyn was probably disappointed to end up with the eighth overall pick in the Lottery, but there is a possibility that they try to move at least one of their first-round picks into the future to continue having multiple picks.
“Brooklyn should look to trade one of their later picks in a kick-the-can-down-the-road type of deal. Rostering four rookies on what already projects to be a young team is a lot,” Spotrac’s Keith Smith wrote in his preview of the Nets‘ offseason. In addition to the eighth overall pick, Brooklyn also has the 19th, 26th, and 27th overall picks from the Milwaukee Bucks, Houston Rockets, and New York Knicks, respectively.
“It can also cause problems down the line when players become extension eligible,” Smith continued. “Moving a pick in this year’s draft for a future pick should bring some better balance for the future roster. No matter what, coming away with at least one high-end starter and a couple of future rotation players is the goal at the draft for Marks.”
Most of the reporting on the Draft to this point has suggested that the Nets are expected to explore trading up for a better Lottery pick with the teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers potentially being open to trading back. For a team like Brooklyn that was hoping to get lucky enough to select Duke forward Cooper Flagg or Rutgers Dylan Harper, getting somewhere around the third overall pick would be an ideal spot.
If the Nets stay at No. 8, the tier of players that are expected to be available at that slot are prospects like Maryland center Derik Queen and Duke forward Kon Knueppel. While Brooklyn would most likely use their eighth and 19th overall picks to bring in players with upside, trading one of their later first-round picks could be a smart way to move forward to keep their surplus draft capital momentum going in an important rebuild.
