I have found one more positive of a tanking season. The Brooklyn Nets hosted exit interviews on Monday morning, but thanks to the players that had already bid farewell to the season (largely due to season-ending injury), the festivities at HSS Training Center lasted only a couple hours instead of the the usual marathon.
General Manager Sean Marks and Head Coach Jordi Fernández shared the first podium, then Michael Porter Jr. joined on Zoom before Noah Clowney reflected on his season in person. And
that was it. Clowney was particularly introspective about his season, at one point saying, “I think I progressed this year, maybe not as much as I wanted to or as much as I thought I would have.”
Clowney had a fascinating third season; his 1780 minutes were more than his first two years combined, and he morphed into a full-time wing who shot a ton of threes and drew plenty of fouls, driving the ball more than he ever has. He shot very well on corner threes but very poorly on above-the-break attempts, a fact that he discussed on Monday, but we’ll save Clowney’s self-analysis for a genuine, in-depth look at his growth another day.
Our Jordan Greene will have a full run-down of noteworthy quotes from Nets exits tomorrow, like Fernández admitting that the stress of losing took a toll on him, or Marks once again emphasizing high-minute counts for the rookies. But the main story of the day was, of course, what roster moves await Brooklyn this summer. Namely a potential Michael Porter Jr. extension, as well as team options looming for Josh Minott and Day’Ron Sharpe.
Porter Jr. is entering the final year of a five-year contract in 2026-27, which would pay him nearly $41 million. Thus, the 27-year-old (turning 28 in June) is up for an extension, and fortunately for him, it comes after the best individual season of his NBA career, where he averaged 24/7/3 as a true first option.
Marks admitted as much on Monday: “You look at his usage — it’s the highest it’s ever been. I don’t think anybody questioned whether he could shoot, but I think, could he be a number one option? And I think for us, he’s the number-one option. And I just enjoyed the person, I enjoyed being around him. I think he’s a fun-loving guy. He’s curious, as we all know.”
That’s a tremendous reference to MPJ’s high-octane podcasting career — Curious Mike is the name of his own pod. Still, when it came to a potential extension (or, in a different attempt to capitalize on MPJ’s resurgence, a trade), Marks didn’t give much away.
“I think in the summer there’s going to be a lot of those discussions” he said. “Whether it’s with Michael … there’s a variety of decisions we have to make with a variety of our players on the team. But in terms of a long-term build, short-term build, I think we’ve positioned ourselves over the last year or two to maintain flexibility and have optionality, which I’m really looking forward to.”
Porter Jr. was a bit more open about his contract situation, even admitting that “it hasn’t been on my mind enough until now.”
The team’s leading scorer clearly enjoyed his inaugural season in Brooklyn. He hopes it’s not his last: “If it was up to me I would love to sign an extension with this franchise.”
He continued: “I would love to spend many, many years in Brooklyn and make this my home and watch this franchise take off. Terance Mann actually just sent me a little breakdown of that stretch when we were winning … there were a lot of positives, and the front office has the ability to make some moves and make us even better.”
On the most recent episode of Locked On Nets with Erik Slater, I guessed that the Nets wouldn’t trade Porter Jr. this offseason, though I wasn’t too confident in my prediction. Simply put, it’s a tough sell to everybody — ownership, the coaching staff, the fans — to trade the best player on the team right when you’re trying to compete in earnest.
Marks even mentioned “competitiveness” as the first trait the team looks for in draft prospects: “You’ve heard us all talk about having a Brooklyn grit, being a connected guy, being part of something bigger than yourself, all the old clichés that every team uses in pro sports. But for us, you’ve got to be competitive. That’s going to be the number one thing here. Can we rely on you?”
Paying $40 million annually to a player with a rough injury history and a relative inability to create his offense may be tough to stomach. Brooklyn does have other routes to that roster flexibility and optionality Marks mentioned, though.
Day’Ron Sharpe has a $6 million team option for next season. Might the Nets try to trade Nic Claxton and ink Sharpe to a long-term extension instead, making him their starting center? It wouldn’t be so crazy. Sharpe has evolved into one of the best backup bigs in the league. This is pure speculation, but if the Nets signed him to a contract that pays $15 million annually, that’s only 9% of next year’s salary cap allocated to a starter. Not bad.
“If those talks happen and if it goes down that way, that’s probably a good problem to have,” said Marks. “And I give Day’Ron a lot of credit because he embraced the summer work last year. In his exit meeting this year — I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn — he said he wants to come back an even better, improved player. So when that’s what he wants to embark on and that’s how he’s motivated, I think that’s great.”
At his exit interview a couple weeks ago, Sharpe said he was proud of his growth this season, but that he hasn’t even thought about his contract situation moving forward: “Whatever the team has in plan for me, that’s what they got.”
Similarly, the team holds an option on Josh Minott’s $2.6 million contract for next season. Given how Minott performed after a mid-season trade from the Boston Celtics, it seems like a foregone conclusion he’ll be back as well…
Marks seemed to imply as much in his sole answer about the 23-year-old wing: “He’s really confident out there. I think the shooting is something that probably surprised me slightly, but I look forward to seeing him healthy. He was playing on one leg with us for most of the time here, so it’s nice to get that ankle taken care of, and then again, have another big summer for a young man like that.”
Minott already had the ankle injury when he arrived in Brooklyn, and even after his call-up from the G League, he missed nearly half of potential games in a Nets uniform. Some of that was due to the tank (for which he was occasionally too good), but clearly, it was also about a balky left ankle. As long as that ankle gets taken of, that’s pretty damn encouraging.
Another spit-ball here, but if Minott is extended rather than just picked up at, say, $8 million per year, Marks could lock in two real rotation players at a combined 14% of the cap. Trade Claxton, and now you’re rocking with some real flexibility no matter what happens with Porter Jr.
The rest of Brooklyn Nets’ exit day was not so eventful. Again, our Jordan Greene will have you covered with the rest of the important quotes, such as some rookie praise from both head coach and GM.
This team is still at the beginning of a rebuild, but it seems like the trend-arrow is pointing up. The Nets plan to be competitive next season, and they can improve without making splashy moves. Some lottery luck on May 12 will help, of course. No matter what happens, we’ll have full coverage on NetsDaily.
Again, thanks to all our readers for a great season. With lockers cleaned out and exit interviews over, may our offseason begin in earnest.
