As the Brooklyn Nets make their final cuts to round out the roster ahead of the 2025-2026 NBA regular season, one player’s short-lived stint in Brooklyn has come to an end.
Just over a month after being acquired from the Atlanta Hawks, the Nets have waived guard Kobe Bufkin…
The 22-year-old was traded to Brooklyn
on Sept. 16 in exchange for cash considerations after spending the past two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks.
While adding a third-year guard to a roster that lacks backcourt experience could have been beneficial, Bufkin still lacks much NBA experience himself, having appeared in just 27 games over two seasons. He averaged five points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game while shooting 37.4% from the field and 22% from beyond the arc.
Although he was a key contributor to Atlanta’s Summer League team, leading the group with 19.5 points and 4.1 assists per game, he never managed to carve out a spot in the Nets’ rotation this preseason. Although the Hawks had him experiment as a back-up point guard, the Nets liked his potential as a shooting guard, having no need for another point guard after the June Draft when they selected three of them, all age 19.
Through four preseason games, Bufkin ranked 14th on the team in minutes played while averaging seven points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
The move brings the Nets to the NBA’s required 15-player roster, effectively ensuring that Jalen Wilson and Tyrese Martin will open the season with the team, even on their partial and non-guaranteed contracts. The contracts remain non-guaranteed through January 10 when all non- and partially guaranteed deals become fully guaranteed. Both Wilson are on veteran minimum contracts. Wilson had an $88,000 guarantee.
The Nets still have one opening, the third two-way. It’s possible, Brian Lewis reported, that Drew Timme, cut last week, could be signed to the third two-way. Nets have no deadline to sign the two-way. Another possibility is Grant Nelson who the Nets waived on Saturday after being signed three days earlier. Nelson is a 7’0” 23-year-old.
After waiving Bufkin, who was set to make $4.5 million this year, Brooklyn will be above the cap floor (95% of the NBA’s salary cap as required by the new CBA. Bobby Marks estimates that the Nets now will be $190,000 above the floor and have $15.3 million in cap space, still the highest in the league.
