What Is Marks’ Short-Term Vision For Nets?

(And Will He Commit To It?)

NYDailyNews.com

How huge is this offseason for the Nets? Good, bad, or eh, it promises to be transformative.

To put it in perspective, their canvas is as much of a blank slate as one would typically find among NBA rosters. While it would be stunning, not to mention unprecedented, for Brooklyn to host 20 new players at September’s training camp, one could make a well-reasoned case for it.

None of the four players under fully guaranteed contracts (Cam Johnson, Nic Claxton, Dariq Whitehead, and Noah Clowney) are considered untouchable in trades. In fact, their names have been bandied about so much in rumors over the last month that some might deem it an upset should they happen to return.

There are three restricted free agents (Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, and Ziaire Williams) who have their proponents & detractors of their long-term worth, and the rest of the group that finished a 26-56 season are either unrestricted free agents or on contracts with relatively small guarantees that can be eaten with negligible salary cap consequences, if that.

I have no idea how the next 30 days, starting with the June 25 NBA Draft, will proceed. I don’t believe General Manager Sean Marks knows either—he’s probably working through an assortment of “what if games” so he can pivot onto the most favorable opportunities at a moment’s notice.

Just look at the Draft in a vacuum. Brooklyn is slated for picks 8, 19, 26, 27, and 36, yet many pundits are predicting fluidity. Among the possibilities posited, Marks can: Trade up from 8, trade assets for a second lottery pick, consolidate picks to either move up or even push one of them to 2026, or simply select the best available player at all five slots.

Since the Nets are the only NBA team projected to possess significant salary cap room at the league open on July 1, they’re mentioned as facilitators in just about every trade proposal involving a star. Need to offload payroll? Call the Nets! And be sure to have a Draft pick ready to complete the deal.

All this flexibility is well and good, but we’d feel so much better about it if we knew what the plan was. As in, what does the organization want out of the 2025-26 season?

It's not a stupid question. I ask because I know few fans who were satisfied with how last season went down. The team, which initially rostered too many players with winning traits to tank to the degree necessary to maximize lottery odds, ended up placing sixth in the reverse standings and then dropped two more slots in the drawing. There is no accounting for bad luck.

Yeah, the franchise found a promising head coach in Jordi Fernandez, but it then threw in the towel after the All-Star break when a play-in seed was within reach. In other words, last season’s outcome was among the worst of all worlds.

Who wants a rerun of that? There’s an argument that the 2025-26 campaign is Marks’ mulligan to make the most out of last year’s trade with Houston that got Brooklyn its 2025 and 2026 first rounders originally dealt in the 2021 James Harden blockbuster. Marks surrendered the rights to Phoenix’s 2027 first-round pick, two more 1s in 2029, plus the swap that allowed Houston to jump from No. 27 overall all the way to Phoenix’s slot at No. 10 in the 2025 Draft. No one had the Suns stumbling to such a degree this quickly—and the story goes that Marks made this trade in conjunction with the Mikal Bridges deal to New York that netted Brooklyn five 1s, a 2028 first-round swap, and a 2. Still, Marks has taken a beating from the pro-tanking segment of Nets fans over the one-sidedness of the Rockets segment.

The Nets’ short-term mission heading into this offseason, then, can’t be to win 15 games to get the best possible 2026 pick in what’s projected to be a top-heavy Draft but then Marks also goes out and takes on a salary dump like Paul George from the Sixers or Kristaps Porzingis from the Celtics. Besides being leery of once again helping a division rival get out of fiscal hell, you’re not winning the tanking race either, especially if you’re also holding onto Thomas, Johnson, etc.

Marks, then, had better be careful with how he monetizes his cap space, which I estimate to be around $55 million (not counting the $23.3 million trade exception that expires on July 7) based on players I would hold/renounce. Stick with the modern-day Timofey Mozgov’s who can be cut as opposed to grabbing guys who can wreck a tank with some 30-point explosions. The Draft picks are the prizes.

I’d also forgo trade-ups unless it’s a way to simultaneously move a veteran under contract off the books to abet a tank. Per SaltCityHoops.com, there were 24 such trade-ups into a lottery pick from 2001-2023. The results were mixed. You had some decisive fleeces (Donovan Mitchell for Trey Lyles plus a pick used on Tyler Lydon in 2017, the 2018 Bridges swap for Zhaire Smith plus a 2021 pick that eventually put Josh Green on Dallas, and LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa in 2006). The 2018 Luka Doncic trade for picks that became Trae Young and Cam Reddish doesn’t look as great for Dallas now, but it’s a win.

However, you also had just as many major whiffs (Markelle Fultz for Jayson Tatum and Romeo Langford in 2019, O.J. Mayo for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Jason Collins, and filler in 2008, Cleveland moving up one slot to take Chris Mihm over Jamal Crawford in 2000, and—who can forget—Eddie Griffin for three picks that the Nets turned into Richard Jefferson, Collins, and Brandon Armstrong in 2001). The bottom line: When you consider how many of the other targets were lesser lights like Emeka Okafor (2004), Joel Przybilla (2000), Elfrid Payton (2014), Cole Aldrich (2010), and Marcus Banks (2003), these deals really tended to be not worth it.

The good news for the Nets holding all these picks is that drafting is often dart throwing, so the general rule is: The more darts, the better chance of hitting a bullseye. Recent NBA history has shown that All-Stars can be found all over the Draft, even if the chances are better with higher picks. With Marks’ excellent overall evaluation record in Drafts and the success of the organization’s development program, simply taking four rookies into training camp (with one stashed overseas) would, in my book, represent hope and progress towards the ultimate goal of sustainable winning.

That is, if Marks can commit to a plan’s conviction.