The Brooklyn Nets will be beginning their 2026-27 NBA season on Tuesday as they visit the Charlotte Hornets to open their preseason slate against another team that is currently rebuilding. Brooklyn is hoping to win more games than they did last season while developing the younger players on the team and the good news is that they'll have plenty of money to spend after this season is over.
On Monday, Keith Smith of Spotrac wrote on X that the Nets are projected to have the most cap space in the league for the 2027 offseason, which could be big news for a franchise looking to make moves sooner rather than later. Smith reported that Brooklyn is projected to have $79.5 million in cap space with the next team in the Chicago Bulls projected to have $66.7
million.
For the 2027-28 season, the Nets will have just three players under contracts that don't have any options: veteran forward Terance Mann, rookie Mikel Brown Jr., and rookie Joshua Jefferson. In terms of free-agency, forward Michael Porter Jr. will be a unrestricted free-agent if he doesn't sign an extension and forward Noah Clowney will be a restricted free-agent.
What could be crucial for the Nets when it comes to their spending power for next season is that they will have seven players (Day'Ron Sharpe, Egor Demin, Josh Minott, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf, and Danny Wolf) with team options and two players (Mo Wagner and Keon Ellis) with mutual options. Only one player (Julius Randle) has a player option and with his option being worth $35.8 million, he's likely exercising that mechanism in his deal.
As of this writing, some of the top free-agents (outside of Porter) next offseason are: Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler, Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine, and Milwaukee Bucks guard Tyler Herro. General manager Sean Marks has mentioned multiple times that he prefers to be patient as the front office waits for a high-level player to be available and having plenty of money to spend in free-agency helps in that goal as well.
As Keith notes here, the Nets are projected to have the most cap space in the NBA next offseason. There are only 3 players under contract for the 2027-28 season with no option: Terance Mann ($16.0 million), Mikel Brown Jr. ($9.23 million), and Joshua Jefferson ($3.12 million). https://t.co/ZJ3FIiMnsq
— Sharif Phillips-Keaton (@SharifKeaton) October 5, 2026
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets projected to lead the NBA in cap space for 2027 offseason
