ESPN’s NBA insiders have come up with their annual look at all 30 NBA franchises — their Future Power Rankings
— charting each team’s course over the next three years. Three years is an eternity in NBA terms. No one in September 2017 predicted that the Brooklyn Nets — coming off a 20-win season and a trade of the franchise’s top scorer — would feature Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving only two years later.That said, the rankings provide insight on how the insiders, Kevin Pelton, Bobby Marks and Tim Bontemps
— and presumably their sources — view the Nets future. And the view is not rosy, as the three put the Nets at No. 27, the same as last season.
While the Nets get the No. 1 ranking in cash, aka cap space going forward, and No. 2 in the Draft, behind only the Thunder, they are ranked 30th and obviously dead last in players and 25th in management. The Brooklyn market, a measure of attractiveness to free agents, they rank seventh, a drop of one spot, presumably because the gap between them and the New York Knicks has grown. (The top six are the Lakers, Knicks, Clippers, Warriors, Heat and Suns.)
Bontemps wrote this short summary, offering a positive at the top:
The Nets struck gold last summer when they hired coach Jordi Fernandez, who immediately proved himself to be an asset. But the Nets, who clearly targeted last season and this season to bottom out after reacquiring their draft picks from the Houston Rockets last summer, were one of several teams to have bad luck in the lottery by falling to eighth. The Nets, who have the league’s worst roster, are in the bottom 10 for a third straight year.
The overall ranking, as noted, remains unchanged from last year. at No. 27. It’s also the second straight year ESPN put the Nets roster at the bottom on the barrel going into the season. Who’s worse, according to Pelton, Marks and Bontemps? The Bulls, Pelicans and the Suns. At the top of the list are the Thunder, the obvious choice, followed by the Rockets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Clippers, that last one subject to change depending what the league finds regarding the Pablo Torres-spurred Kawhi Leonard investigation.
There’s no explanation of the ranking of Sean Marks & co. at No. 25, but obviously the last five years have been, to be kind, turbulent with the loss of the Big Three, Irving’s run of controversy, the steady stream of head coaches etc. as well as recent moves that pundits and fans have found confusing, including the decision to use all five of their first round picks, the draft choices themselves, and most recently Cam Thomas’s decision to exercise his qualifying offer, akin to filing divorce papers. There’s also been some criticism of what the Nets got back in their four salary dumps this summer. Did they get enough?
On a positive, John Hollinger of The Athletic wrote this week about his top five underrated moves of the off-season, putting the Cam Johnson-for-Michael Porter Jr. at No. 3. He also concedes not all salary dumps are equal.
This is precisely how you’re supposed to do it when you have more cap space than talent — turn that space into some truly juicy asset, not just a random late first- or second-round pick. Taking on Terance Mann with three years and $47 million left on his deal to get a pick in the 20s when you already had four others? Meh. Getting an unprotected 2032 first-rounder from the Denver Nuggets to turn Cam Johnson into Michael Porter? Beautiful.
The big positive of course remains the Draft hoard. The Nets currently have 32 picks: 13 firsts and 19 seconds, 29 of which are tradeable. Indeed a separate ESPN piece, by Bobby Marks and Jeremy Woo, puts the Nets among five teams whose combined 55 picks could control the draft going forward.
The analysis first offers each of the five teams’ best picks. No surprise: the Nets own first next June, reacquired in the Rockets trade the same night as the Mikal Bridges trade, is listed as No. 1 while the 2032 Nuggets pick, added in the Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Jr. salary dump is second.
Here’s Woo’s analysis:
The 2026 draft looms large for Brooklyn for two reasons: the star power atop the class could transform the franchise; however, the Nets owe a 2027 pick swap to the Houston Rockets, presenting an inflection point in the trajectory of this rebuild.
With the front office under general manager Sean Marks, the Nets are opting to maximize player development, reshape the roster and position themselves for top lottery odds next year. That was made clear with Brooklyn casting a wide net with its five first-round selections in this year’s draft. The Nets prioritized versatility and playmaking and will look to turn as many of their rookies into contributors this season as possible. The subtext of what will likely be a losing season is the opportunity to select at or near the top of next year’s draft, which a group of talent evaluators has continued to express excitement about all summer.
Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, a top-ranked prospect for next year, could be a dynamic creator from the moment he steps on an NBA court. The same goes for BYU wing A.J. Dybantsa, who NBA teams view as another strong candidate for the No. 1 pick. The projected top five is presently rounded out by Duke’s Cameron Boozer, positioned for a breakout year in college, as well as two rising names in Tennessee’s Nate Ament and Louisville’s Mikel Brown.
How this college season plays out will shift opinion to some extent, but there’s potentially quite a bit of impact talent atop the draft. Meaning a tanking team may not need to win the lottery to land a transformative player.
Beyond that, the two suggest that once the Nets (presumably) reap the rewards of their multi-year tank, the 2027 off-season could be an “inflection point” for the franchise in its return to contention.
Because the Nets don’t control their 2027 first-rounder, next offseason — in which they’ll again be heavy on cap space and flexibility — presents an obvious opportunity to accelerate the roster back into playoff contention. What exactly the next iteration of the team will look like remains to be seen, but some potential stars available in free agency and a cache of future draft capital to dangle in trade discussions gives Brooklyn a pathway back to competitiveness if things break right. –
To be more detailed, the Nets owe the Rockets swap rights on their first rounder in 2027, but they also control the Knicks first – unprotected – and could wind up with the 76ers pick – protected 1-8 – that year. It could slip to 2028 which considering how draftniks view the 2027 draft might not be a bad thing.
The rationale behind ranking the Nets after the Thunder is difference between quality and quantity. The Thunder have fewer overall picks: 29, including 13 firsts and 16 seconds, but they could have four first rounders in the 2026 draft. As Marks wrote:
Even if they finish with one of the best records, the Thunder could be drafting in the lottery for the next two drafts. They have a top-4 protected first from Philadelphia next June, the right to swap firsts with the Clippers in 2027 and then with the Dallas Mavericks the following year.
No surprise but in the ESPN Future Power Rankings, the Thunder rank first in management.
Bottom line, of course, is they all have to play the games.
