In June 2024, the Nets traded Mikal Bridges for five firsts, four unprotected,, a first swap etc. He was supposed to be key piece for the Knicks in a championship run. He scored 0 points in a big post-season loss Thursday night. His team is now down 2-1 in the East.
In June 2025, the Nets traded Cam Johnson for an protected first and a younger player who wound up averaging 25 points a game. He was supposed to be key piece for Nuggets in a championship run. He scored six points Thursday night in big post-season loss. His team is now down 2-1 in the West.
Of course, both teams can recover from being down 2-1. They are, after all, the higher seeds and have superstars in Jalen Brunson and Nikola Jokic. Also, both former Nets could rise to the occasion.
However, the talk in New York and Denver, particularly New York, Friday morning is about the trades as well at the losses. Putting aside the commentary about the trades at the time — Bill Simmons called the Porter deal “one of the worst in a decade” — and whether Sean Marks hung on to both for too long, where do the Nets stand with their “take” from the two trades??
While most of the kerfluffle Monday is about the trades’ effect on the Knicks and Nuggets, little has been written or said how Brooklyn’s fortunes will be affected! A NetsDaily analysis shows that the two deals will provide Brooklyn with at least one pick — a first, a swap, or a second — over an eight-year stretch starting last June and going through 2031, whether directly or indirectly. Here’s how, year by year. Obviously, the Bridges trade has had and will have the most effect.
2025 NBA Draft
— The first return on the Bridges trade came at No. 19 in the first round of the 2025 Draft, when the Nets used the Milwaukee Bucks first rounder, acquired from the Knicks on Nolan Traore. The Knicks had acquired the top four protected pick from the Pistons in 2022.
— The Nets also drafted Ben Saraf with the Knicks unprotected pick at No. 26.
— The Nets traded their second round pick, the No. 36, which they reacquired from New York in the Bridges deal, to the Phoenix Suns for two future seconds in 2026 and 2030. (More on that below.) The Nets apparently decided after trading for the No. 22 pick the day before that they didn’t need yet another development project.
2026 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold the rights to the Los Angeles Clippers’ second rounder at No. 43. That’s one of the two picks the Suns sent the Nets for the No. 36 pick in 2025. Whether the Nets will use the pick to select a player would seem uncertain considering that they will have seven players on rookie deals next season: their own 2026 pick, the Flatbush Five plus Noah Clowney.
2027 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold the rights to the Knicks unprotected first round pick.
2028 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold unprotected first round swap rights with both the Knicks, acquired in the Bridges trade, and the Suns, the last vestige of the Kevin Durant trade in February 2023. (The details are a bit complicated but Nets will likely to swap their pick for the Knicks and possibly another team.)
2029 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold the rights to the Knicks unprotected first round pick.
2030 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold rights to the Boston Celtics second rounder, acquired in the trade of that 2025 second they had re-acquired from the Knicks in the Bridges trade.
— The Nets hold rights to the Dallas Mavericks second rounder, acquired in their trade with the Memphis Grizzlies for Ziaire Williams which took place three weeks after the Bridges deal and included a piece from the deal. The Nets used the final piece of their trade with the Knicks, the non-guaranteed contract of Mamadi Diakite, as well as an unused trade exception to complete the deal.
2031 NBA Draft
—The Nets hold the rights to the Knicks unprotected protected first round pick.
2032 NBA Draft
— The Nets hold the Denver Nuggets unprotected first round pick from the Cam Johnson/MPJ trade to Denver.
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So the current take from the two trades is six first rounders, all but one unprotected; a first round swap; three seconds as well as two rotation players, the 27-year-old Michael Porter Jr. and the 24-year-old Ziaire Williams.
Bottom line is that it could take a long time, at least through the Draft in 2032, to get a final read on who won the trades. It’s generally accepted that if deal culminates in a chip, they win. No questions asked. That is what they play for.
Now though, the trades look like their heavily weighted in Brooklyn’s favor. And who knows whether the Nets will make another big trade this June!
