They may sound like sports cliches but for the Brooklyn Nets, imitation is the highest form of flattery, and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when the defending NBA champions just laid out the formula.
When the Brooklyn Nets recently hired Oklahoma City Thunder director of amateur scouting Acie Law IV to be their new director of player personnel, essentially their scouting director, it was another sign that they’re following the blueprint Thunder general manager Sam Presti put together. It’s
no secret. The Nets brass talk about it all the time, starting at lease publicly with Thunder being crowned back in June.
The hiring of Law came just a week before training camp kicked off. And while Presti probably didn’t expect to head into media day without a key member of his staff, the 2024-25 NBA Executive of the Year said he believes his former front office colleague will make a strong impact in Brooklyn.
“I think he’s got an extremely bright future,” Presti said of Law. “A class act, a professional, and he’ll help Brooklyn significantly. I’m excited to see how he does with them.”
It might feel a little ambitious to compare one of the youngest, most inexperienced rosters in NBA history to the defending champions, but the Thunder were once right there too, young, raw, and learning through losses. Back in 2021-22, Oklahoma City was the second-youngest team in NBA history and missed the playoffs after going 24-58. It would be the middle year of their playoff drought and rebuild. It’s something Marks points out publicly and privately. Win totals of 22, 24 and 40 on their way to the title.
After all, The Thunder is the only team near the Nets total of 32 picks over the next seven years, They hold 30.
Fresh off selecting an NBA-record five first-rounders this summer, the Nets still hold 13 future first-round picks. That doesn’t guarantee they’ll draft a superstar, but the sheer volume should allow them to uncover a few gems. (Mike Scotto reported that Sunday that the Nets had hired two new scouts, Josh Coley, who’s making the jump from coaching a North Carolina prep school, and Cory Higgins, who played in the NBA and European leagues.)
During a Media Day interview with YES Network’s Frank Isola and Chris Shearn, Marks didn’t hide his admiration for Presti’s approach
“I give OKC and Sam Presti a lot of credit for how they’ve built that, and the patience they’ve shown. They hit on the right guys, whether it was a trade or in the draft,” Marks said. “That’s something we’ve obviously studied and said, ‘what can we take from them’ and try to implement that.”
While Oklahoma City’s rebuild stretched across multiple draft classes, making eight first-round picks in the five years before their Finals win, Brooklyn might have accelerated the process with their recent flurry of selections.
“This was a unique opportunity for us,” Marks said during the offseason. “We’ve never had five picks in one draft. That was something we wanted to take advantage of. It was about capitalizing on the hand we were dealt.”
And understanding the great value of what the Nets call “controllable first round picks,” picks that become players on reasonable four-year deals, leaving cap room in reserve for star acquisitions.
The Thunder may not have broken a record for most first-round picks like Brooklyn did, but their success in the 2022 NBA Draft marked a real turning point. That year, they landed Chet Holmgren (No. 2 overall), Jalen Williams (No. 12), and Jaylin Williams (No. 34), who all became contributors to their recent championship run.
Shaping What’s Next
That draft came right before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s first All-Star season. The Thunder still missed the playoffs in 2022-23, winning 40 games, but it was clear they were moving in the right direction, and just two years later, they were champions.
The Nets haven’t found their MVP-level centerpiece yet, but they have the financial flexibility to pursue one and when the time comes, have the flexibility to do just that. As they enter the season with the most cap space in the league, Brooklyn is in the position to make a splash when the time is right.
If the team’s rookies and young core show promise this season, the appeal of joining a young, positively-trending roster in a major market — with respected head coach like Mark Daigneault running things — could draw a star their way.
In the meantime, Jordi Fernández is focused on helping the group already in place reach its ceiling as they settle into life at the pro level.
“Player development is going to be important. We’ve been very diligent,” Fernandez said. “The coaching staff has done a great job making our guys work, and those guys have improved. And we believe [the rookies] will do the same thing.”
Patience in the Process
Rebuilding isn’t glamorous. It can get messy and require a great deal of patience. While the Thunder hit on prospects like Jalen Williams (No. 12) and Lu Dort (undrafted!,) they also swung and missed on promising players like Aleksej Pokuševski, who simply never panned out in the NBA. It happens to the best GMs.
Brooklyn will face its own version of that. With a mountain of draft picks and a roster full of question marks, not everyone will pan out.
But if you’re going to borrow someone’s homework, at least pick the guy who just aced the test.
Of course, beyond the formula, there’s the execution. Sean Marks rebuilt the team once with great, arguably unparalleled success only to see it all collapse spectacularly. Most pundits give him high marks for his selections over the 10 drafts he’s overseen, mostly because none were lottery picks or higher than No. 20. But last week, Jake Fischer told Connor Long of The Brooklyn Boys Show he’s not sure that Marks deserves high marks.
“I don’t really know how strong of a draft record Sean Marks has truly had, to be honest,“ he said, adding ”I don’t really think anyone he’s drafted has fully emerged as that type of piece, right? Is there a guy on this roster you look at and say this team identified in the first round? And that person has been a staple of what they’ve done here. I mean, I don’t know.“
What’s past is past, no matter how you feel about it but now with last June’s haul and quite likely a high lottery pick in 2026, we will ultimately find out just how close Sean Marks is following Sam Presti’s model.
