Well, that was tough. From disappointed to deflated to defeated to downright embarrassing, at least in terms of immediate fan reaction, the 2026 Draft Lottery is right up there with some of the worst days in recent Nets history … and there’s been some doozies. The effect remains to be seen, but whoosh, that was ug-ly.
As devastating as last year’s drop from No. 6 to No. 8, this year’s slide from No. 3 to No. 6 was worse, not just in terms of the number of slots, but in projected star power. No more
speculation about a “franchise-changer” like A.J. Dybantsa, Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson or maybe Caleb Wilson embracing Adam Silver adorned with a Nets cap. Things could change by June 23 and beyond. The litany of “franchise-changers” taken after No. 4 in this year’s playoffs starts with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander taken at No. 11 and continues on down the line to Jalen Brunson taken at 33rd. But of course, the odds are in favor of a top pick.
More than that: fans thought they “deserved” a high pick because of what they have gone through over the last two-plus years of tanking, starting sometime after the 2024 trade deadline when the Nets decided it was time to go full-on tank. All those losses, all those fan arguments about losing to win, all of it seem to have been for naught. But the aerodynamics of ping pong balls are cruel and unforgiving. Deserved or not, it happened.
Of course, the Nets may not even pick at No. 6 (or No. 33 or 43 in the second round.) Sean Marks, predictably considering how soon he was asked following the Lottery, was non-committal about a lot of things, but his key takeaway is that “rash decisions” should be avoided … not that that’s his style. It isn’t. In fact, Marks suggested in post-Lottery comments that whatever the Nets do will be driven not just by lottery results, but by the team’s overall youth and their development. Think bigger, he seemed to say! Longer, too?
“Hard to tell,” Marks told reporters after the Lottery when asked about ramifications. “I think it’s all about how these guys develop, right? I don’t think you want to make rash decisions before you’ve seen how they look,”
He also showed optimism that whoever they pick will be a prize addition.
“I think we all know there’s a group in this draft that could be game-changers, but I said could be because you never know,” Marks added. “Every draft there’s a guy who people didn’t quite expect to be [that high] if you do the re-draft. So for us, it’ll still be about having patience. But at the end of the day, we’ve got optionality, we’ve maintained flexibility, we’ve got the cap space and assets. So I think the word would be opportunistic.”
As Marks said, the Nets still have plenty of flexibility with seven players on rookie deals — Noah Clowney, the Flatbush Five and whoever they take in the first round — that off-cited grand total of 33 picks composed of those 13 firsts and 22 seconds plus a couple of swaps. They will also have a lot of cap space. Keith Smith estimates that the total as of now at $47.7 million (up as he notes from $44.6 million because of the lower guarantee for the No. 6 pick compared to the No. 3.)
In fact, on Monday, Brett Siegel of Clutch Points reported the Nets and Jazz, who hold the No. 2 pick, will meet soon to talk trade. Seems unlikely, but no one would be surprised to see the Nets try to move up. They do have 13 firsts, 10 of them tradeable. As one league decision maker not associated with the Nets told ND recently, the only reason that a GM gathers all those firsts is to be “opportunistic” using the same word Marks did. The source added that while he thought that while difficult, moving up is certainly possible.
All that’s good. So is their scouting department, their performance and medical staffs, their development staff, per league sources. Agents and players understand, as one agent, told ND, that their player amenities are among the best in the NBA. And they have Jordi Fernandez and his staff, all of whom just got extensions and raises. Oh yeah, don’t forget New York. Players like to play in the Big Apple, too.
However, does the Nets poor performance on the court, the lack of anyone approaching a star let alone a superstar and oh, yes, bad luck, hurt them? Is this place cursed, is Barclays Center a haunted house? some fans were asking just before 4:00 p.m. Sunday.
We try to steer clear of conspiracy theories and those who promote them (mostly an aggrieved, disagreeable lot) but there has been a litany of events like Sunday’s. In fact, there was, among the NBA media Sunday afternoon and evening, a generalized concern for the Nets and their fans, suggesting that the “basketball gods” abandoned them, etc.
Said Jake Fischer on The Stein Line:
Sunday’s foremost lottery loser, on this scorecard, was my home-borough Brooklyn Nets.
Tsai was the only owner in the drawing room and visibly disappointed when the Nets fell from No. 3 to No. 6. They are now firmly out of the top tier of this draft and just as visibly lacking a young Face of the Franchise type to be, say, their answer to Detroit’s Cade Cunningham.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger:
As for Brooklyn … yikes. In the wake of what looks like a fairly disastrous 2025 draft (the Nets used five first-round picks, but only two look anything like a rotation player so far), they needed help from the lottery gods ahead of a 2027 season where they owe an unprotected first-round pick swap to a likely playoff team in Houston.
Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor:
The most talent-starved team in the league was let down by the basketball gods. While they will still get a quality player at No. 6 — likely a star guard like Darius Acuff Jr. or Keaton Wagler — but it’s not the guy or the lottery luck they were hoping for.
Brooklyn is on track to struggle again next year, and with the coming new “3-2-1″ lottery system, their chances of adding that elite talent just got longer.
Sam Quinn, in response to former ND writer Billy Reinhardt, went even further back…
Fans of course went a LOT further than Quinn, O’Connor, Hollinger or Fischer! Throughout social media, there were discussions that boiled down to “why can’t we have good things?” But mostly, the sentiment was harsher, more, worrisome. It centered on the question, “why do I put myself through this?” Exorcists and free lance wiccan could have done a nice business at Barclays Center if it had been open.
Whether you agree or disagree with pundit assessments, no one wants to feel cursed. That’s worse than unlucky or even incompetent. It means you’ve forsaken logic as well as hope. And no we don’t want to get too philosophical here. It is after all basketball. But the depth of fan pain was very real (and it should be noted is a concern at the team’s highest levels.) We’re less worried about prospective free agents. Money matters more than any real or imagined hex.
So how do Joe Tsai, who as Fischer reported was among the deflated, and Sean Marks, who was as ever forward looking in his post-Lottery comments — at least publicly, turn things around and not just with picks and signings but with some encouragement of the fan base? We’re sure there will be meetings.
Winning, of course, cures everything in sports (unless you’re from Philly where, despite reports, it is never sunny … ask their fans.) Can the Brooklyn Nets win enough games next season to counter said curse? You’d have to be an optimist to think that at the moment. But things change fast in sports and particularly in basketball. The coach is very good and he knows after two years of tanking, he has no other priorities but winning. Players develop and surprise and while next year’s team may not be the youngest NBA team in 20 years, it will be young and presumably hungry.
It would also be helpful if someone on the Nets roster had just a little touch of star quality, you know, someone whose name and face you could splatter all over Brooklyn and online, on TV. Face of the Franchise! We don’t know if there is a “star” box for scouts to check but maybe there should be, at least this year. (Hello, Darius Acuff?)
We also believe that the removal of the tanking ethos will help. Tanking in our opinion makes for an insular locker room, particularly with so many fans cheering for losses and excoriating fellow fans to do the same. It becomes “us vs. them,” with the “them” an expanded universe. The locker room by all accounts was positive despite everything, a credit to Jordi.
Maybe Mr. Whammy has a “reverse the curse” in his hex toolbox.
But in the end, we got nothin’ to guarantee success at ending real or presumed curses. Fandom is irrational exuberance, former Nets executive Irina Pavlova used to say (paraphrasing a former Federal Reserve chairman about the stock market.) You have to decide whether you want to be a fan and how far to go how brave you want to be. And of course, fandom isn’t just about the team’s performance. It’s about the collegiality, friends, family, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.
Indeed, a FOX Sports study, backed now by Harvard researchers, reported Monday, suggested that collegiality is underrated, that whether you’re high on a winning streak or low on a lottery selection, you’re part of a community from which you draw support. From Sportico.
“What we find is that regardless of the fan base in question, whether they’re perennial losers or in the middle of a dynastic run, there really is no measurable effect on the wellness outcomes that we see,” Ben Valenta of FOX told Sportico. “Effectively what fandom is, is you’re going on an emotional ride with other people, and whether you’re celebrating or commiserating, it doesn’t really actually matter. What matters is the connectivity that results from the engagement.”
“Emotional?” Oh yeah! So, ALL of that said, we hope to see you next October in Brooklyn to root for the home team. Screw the curse!! What else we got? We got each other.
Draft Sleeper of the Week
We could profile one of the guards in that No. 5 to No. 8 range or beyond to Nate Ament, the 6’10” Tennessee forward/wing or Karim Lopez, the 6’9” Mexican power forward who played for the New Zealand Breakers in the Australian League. (Among some fans, Lopez is this year’s avatar for failed lottery luck, just like last year’s was Kon Knueppel. How’d that work out?)
Nah, Lucas Kaplan has already done some of that Monday and there will be plenty of time as the spring turns to summer and all of them find their way to the HSS Training Center.
Instead, we’re going with a projected second round pick. Luigi Suigo (pronounced SWEE-go) is a 7’3” Italian center who plays for Serbian powerhouse and NBA feeder Mega Basket. We’ve noticed him getting attention at the two spots where the Nets pick in the second round, again Nos. 33 and 43. He’s 19 so at big raw but as his highlights for this season show, there’s some talent lurking there.
He is huge. At the 2025 Basketball Without Borders, he measured 7’3″ barefoot with a 9’6″ standing reach and a 7’4” wingspan. He has a 19.25″ standing vertical and a 27″ max vertical.
Suigo is all about big man fundamentals: pick and roll, put backs, passing, shot blocking and some shot making.
In a March 2025 interview, he described his game this way:
“I’m a center. I play also as a 4,” he said. “The main thing I can do, for me, is shooting threes. I can play in post-up, catch lobs. On defense, I can switch with everyone, and I block and rebound…
“[Victor] Wembanyama. I want to be like him one day. I want to play like him,” Suigo said. “I watch Wemby, [Kristaps] Porzingis, [Karl-Anthony Towns], also [Nikola] Jokic, but he’s too slow for me, he’s not my type of player, but I like to watch him.”
Always like a little ambition. And while we’ve seen him projected to the Nets at No. 33 and 43, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! Sports has him going in the first round as high as No. 24 to the Knicks.
Suigo has said he wants to be the Italian Wemby and, at 7-foot-3 with passing feel and shooting touch, you can see why a teenager might put that out into the universe. Suigo lacks the handle and self-creation chops to ever be the best player on a team, but his dynamic skills as a passer, shooter, and lob threat layer cleanly on top of baseline center duties as a screener, finisher, and rim protector. Becoming the Italian Marc Gasol is a more realistic goal, and would still be an excellent outcome. Sounds like a perfect fit for the Celtics system.
There’s some suggestion that if he isn’t projected in the first round, he is likely to go the collegiate route. He has heavy interest from Villanova and North Carolina, among others.
Another draft analyst, Ersen Demir wrote in a lengthy analysis of his positives and negatives that Suigo would be best served getting picked “high in the 30s.”
It’s better for Suigo to bet on himself and declare for the draft now and likely be selected high in the 30s in the second round. That’ll help him to stick around at a program for two years, develop and fight for a second deal shortly after that. The long term potential is tremendous. But he’s still young and can make a move to play college ball.
Final Note
For all the gnashing of teeth going on Sunday, the Nets did not have the worst of it … by a long stretch. No one can touch the Indiana Pacers in that category, well other than the Pelicans and Bucks.
The Pacers lost their selection to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the trade sending center Ivica Zubac to Indiana, as Kevin O’Connor noted. The Pacers, who finished with the second worst regular season and had the second best odds, would have kept their pick had it been among the top four selections — and they had a 52% chance of getting there. But the Clippers kept the pick if it fell within the No. 5 through No. 9 selections…. and it did dropping to No. 5. Worse, that was Indiana’s only pick in either round. So they want from having the second best chances at the overall No. 1 to one of two teams without a pick, joining Portland in that distinction.
The GM even apologized…
And in a related move, the Pelicans oft-criticized move to trade for Derek Queen in last year’s Draft was ultimately disastrous.
The Pels moved up 10 spots last June so they could take Derek Queen at No. 13. It took some doing as O’Connor noted. During last year’s Finals, the Pelicans traded an unprotected 2026 Pacers first back to Indiana for the 23rd pick in last year’s draft. Then on Draft Night, a few days later, they packaged the Pacers pick along with their own 2026 first (with a Bucks swap attached) to move up.
The Pacers pick they gave up? That landed at fifth as noted, and it’s now the Clippers’ pick. The Pelicans’ own pick landed at eighth, and is now property of the Hawks.
When you tally it all up, New Orleans surrendered the fifth and eighth picks this year to draft Queen with the 13th pick last year. Five plus eight equals 13, so it couldn’t have happened any other way.
Finally, there was the Milwaukee Bucks whose woes were different. On the same day his daughter once again sat on the lottery dias, the New York Post broke a story about how the Bucks principal owner Wes Edens, had been the subject of a blackmail attempt by a “Chinese divorcee’” with whom he had had an affair.
So it can always be worse … and no one is talking about curses in those cities.
