DILEMMA: Brooklyn Nets Face Roster CRUNCH After Historic Draft | Which players will be CUT?

DILEMMA: Brooklyn Nets Face Roster CRUNCH After Historic Draft | Which players will be CUT?

Coming up, which Nets players are in danger of losing their roster spot for next season? I’ll dive into that after this. You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast right here on the Locked On Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets beat reporter for clutchbints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show was 100% free on all those great platforms. This episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. Now, on today’s show, I’m going to be breaking down which Nets players are in danger of losing their roster spot ahead of this coming season. I’ll analyze which the team should be prioritizing as potential long-term pieces and which may be out the door. But setting the stage for why this is even a conversation, the Nets are facing a roster crunch after a busy off season. And that is because we obviously know they took an NBA record, five first round picks in this draft. So, there is an influx of young talent coming into the building. And then they also uh did a salary dump with the Atlanta Hawks where they took on Terrence Mann’s contract and they didn’t send anything out in return. So that’s six players that the Nets brought in through the five through the draft and one via trade and sending no players out. So that is going to lead to more competition on the back end of the roster. Roster spots are going to be a lot more scarce and through that there are, you know, a bunch of players who could be at risk of losing their spots. After the draft and the trades have that they made, the Nets have 16 players on standard contracts right now. That will grow to 17 if they resign Cam Thomas and free agency as they are expected to. So 17 players on standard contracts, you’re only allowed 15 on roster come opening night. So naturally, there’s going to be some players who are odd men out. And there are four players who Nets fans should be looking to as candidates to be bounced. And that is because there are four guys on partially or non-g guaranteed contracts. Those are Keon Johnson, who’s on a partially guaranteed deal, 272,000 guaranteed. Jaylen Wilson, also partially guaranteed, 88,000. And then Tyrese Martin and Drew Timmy are on non-G guaranteed deals. So those four guys are the players that I would be looking at as candidates. You know, guys who are going to be fighting for their roster spots come training camp and guys who could be on the move. And it must be said that the Nets also still have 20 plus million dollars in cap space left. So they could not be they may not be done. They could, you know, bring in more salary dumps. There could be other moves to be made. But as of right now, if you include Cam Thomas, it’s 17 players on standard contracts, only allowed 15. So those four guys on the partially and non-g guaranteed contracts are the candidates who could potentially be out the door. And of those guys, Keon Johnson is the only one who is ineligible to sign a two-way contract. So the other three, uh, Jaylen Wilson, Tyrese Martin, and Drew Timmy, if they were to be waved, they would be eligible to sign two-way contracts. and that’s a way that they could stay with the team. But of these four guys, who do I think is the most likely to stick around and be a guy that the team is prioritizing as a potential long-term piece? Of the four, I’d say Keon Johnson is the one that I would be looking at as the most likely to stick around and the safest of the group to have a standard roster spot come uh the start of the regular season. And there’s a variety of reasons for that. The first, I would say, is that he’s the youngest of this group. If you look at the group, you know, between Keon Johnson, uh, Wilson, Martin, Drew, Timmy, Keon’s 23 years old, Wilson and Timmy are 24, Martin’s 26. So, you have the most youth with Johnson, you have the most potential to grow and expand the skill set. And obviously with guys who are fringe rostered guys, you’re always in anybody, but these guys in particular, you’re looking for potential. You’re looking for room for growth and upside. And obviously, youth is going to be a part of that. So, Keon, 23 years old, he has that going for him. He also has the pass pedigree as a guy who was a former first round pick. I think he was the 21st pick in the draft in uh 2020 or 2021 out of Tennessee. So, you have that pass pedigree. You also have the athletic tools and measurables which I know that the Nets are very high on. This is, you know, Keon holds the record, all-time record for max vertical leap. He’s extremely fast. He’s a strong guy. We’ve seen, you know, last season what he can do with those athletic gifts defensively and in transition in other parts of the game. So I think that’s a part and then you just look at the role last season and he of this group is the guy who had the most expansive role. He started 56 games for this Nets team last season. Yes, Keon Johnson started 56 games for the Nets which obviously said something about where the team was at, but still he’s a guy that they prioritized and they wanted to put in positions and get game tape of and put him into positions where he could potentially learn and grow his skill set and become a little bit more comfortable. So through all those starts, Keon was actually really involved offensively throughout the year of the players that finished on the Nets roster. Keon was third overall in field goal attempts. So he played a lot. The Nets gave him a lot of opportunities offensively. They really were emphasizing entering the year that they wanted him to take advantage of his athletic gifts on the defensive end. They have, you know, one of their tops assistants, Steve Hetszel, who’s also the summer league head coach, coached Keon in Portland for a couple of seasons. So, they have a little bit of a connection and I know that, you know, they were just hoping that he was going to be able to use his athletic tools to level up as a defender and reach heights there that he hadn’t during his Portland tenure. And I think we saw him really buy into that role because the things that the Nets wanted him to do, they wanted him to be a highintensity guy at the point of attack. They wanted him to pressure 94 feet and then offensively they wanted him to shoot and let it fly from three, which is a message obviously to everyone up and down this roster. And from those two areas, I think you saw Keon buy into the vision. I think you saw him defensively. I think he showed a lot of intriguing things at the point of attack. Him and Zire Williams were two guys who are really spark plugs for a lot of the season. And then offensively, you know, the efficiency obviously wasn’t there. He shot uh 39% from the field, 31% from three, but the volume was there from three-point range. He was willing to let it fly. So with Keon, you have a guy who is 23 years old. He’s extremely athletic, one of the most athletic guys in the league as a, you know, two a two guard in the back court. He’s 6’5, has good length. So those measurables, the past pedigree, the youth of these guys, I think that he’s the guy who I think the Nets probably hope has the most potential or most upside. Does that mean that it’s going to come to fruition? No. A lot of that is obviously going to surround the three-point shot. And up to this point, Keon has never really been a highlevel three-point shooter, even a decent three-point shooter at any stage in his career. He didn’t shoot it well at Tennessee. He didn’t shoot it well in Portland. He didn’t shoot it well um you know during his season with the Nets last year. He did have a stint in the G-League in 2023 24 where he shot like 38% from three on five attempts per game. That was over I think 26 games. So the Nets could have looked at that. They could think maybe there’s some potential to grow the three-point shot. But I think overall you’re just looking for intangibles. You’re looking for translatable traits. And with Keon, you have the youth, you have the athleticism, you have the measurables, you have all of those things where if the three-point shot can come along, if some of these other things can come along, you have a player who at least physically can hang on the court and you have some um upside there and growth potential due to the youth that he has. So, of this group, I think Keon Johnson is the most likely to stick around. And he’s a guy who I would expect to be with the Nets, at least for this coming season, and we’ll see going forward, but I think they could potentially hope to develop into him into a guy who could maybe be a backend rotation guy down the line. So, we’ll see. But of the guys remaining, Drew Timmy, Jaylen Wilson, Tyrese Martin, who of those two could be the guy who could get maybe the last roster spot that the Nets have to offer? I’ll dive into that after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. 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Coming out of the break on today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking about Brooklyn’s roster crunch and which players are in danger of losing their spot ahead of next season. I said, you know, the Nets have four guys on partially or non-g guaranteed contracts. Keon Johnson, Jaylen Wilson, Tyrese Smart, and Drew Timmy. Of the group, I think um Keon Johnson is the most likely to stay. I outlined that. I outlined why in the segment before, but you know, with the Nets having 17 guys on, if you include Cam Thomas, 17 guys on standard contracts, 15 standard spots available, two guys are probably going to have to be cut if it stays the way it is right now. And that means you’ll have one left. If Keon Johnson’s staying, one more guy out of these final three will be able to have a roster spot. And who should that be? It’s kind of tough to say because all of these guys bring different things to the table. They all have attributes that could be intriguing as a back-end roster spot. But of the three, I think I just have to go with Drew Timmy as the guy who should stick around because I think we all saw the things that he did with the Nets in the G-League last season with Long Island. We saw him put up a couple of 50 burgers. We saw the stretch that he had there averaging around 36 points per game. We saw what he did in the summer league this year just completely dominating in the three appearances that he made there. And then obviously everybody knows what he did at Gonzaga as a college star and just one of the most effective postup college big men that we’ve seen probably in this century. So he’s a guy who’s really just dominated at every level that he’s played at. Um you know excluding the NBA minutes that he got at the end of last season. But I thought in those minutes he didn’t look overmatched. Obviously that’s not a time that you can take so much out of because a lot of teams are playing backend roster spots. A lot of teams that are in contention aren’t going as hard as they would be earlier in the season. But still, I didn’t think Timmy looked overmatched whatsoever. We saw a game uh towards the end of the season where he was playing against the Dallas Mavericks and Anthony Davis, a team that was still trying to win. Now Davis clearly wasn’t 100%, but he didn’t look overmatched in that game. And I just think when you look at Timmy’s game, I think that there’s clear limitations. There’s a reason after the production and what he did at Gonzaga that he didn’t get an NBA opportunity. He wasn’t drafted and didn’t get picked up by a team up until the Nets at the end of last season. And that is obviously he’s a center who up to this point in his career is not a three-point shooter or a floor spacer. He’s not a rim roller or a lob threat offensively. And then defensively he’s not a rim protector. So when you don’t have those three things as a center in today’s modern NBA, it’s going to make you really make it really difficult for you to stick. But I will say about Drew Timmy, the intangibles just seem to be off the chart. We all knew that about him dating back to his days at Gonzaga. The IQ, I think there’s a lot of interesting things that lend itself to there in terms of him being a guy who knows how to position himself on the court. And then you talk about the skills that he does have, particularly as an offensive player. He’s just a really effective a really effective driver and postup player with the basketball in his hands. A guy who can finish in a variety of ways. I think we all summer saw it at summer league with him averaging like 25 points a game. It’s not the structure that he’s going to play in. Like the summer league a lot of the time it was these rookie guards having the ball and Drew Timmy just sitting there in the post as a safety blanket. So is he going to get the ball and have all these post up opportunities in the NBA? No. But just when he’s doing that, you see the ability that he has. You see the head fakes, you see the drop steps, you see the up and unders. You see the right-handed hook shots, the left-handed hook shots. You see the ability to take contact and spin the ball off the glass and finish. Just the body control, the finishing ability, the touch is all off the charts with him. So, that is intriguing stuff to me. And if he can, you know, round out some of the skills that are outside of what he’s doing as a scorer of the ball around the basket, I think it could make him a pretty intriguing player offensively. And we saw some of that down the stretch of last season with him being a short roll guy, a guy who has some playmaking ability. And we all know that Jordan Fernandez has some interest in playing as a hub out of the mid post. And you look at what Drew Timmy can do. He’s a guy who’s able to get the ball in the short role. He’s able to see guys maybe dunk dunking in from the dunker spot. He’s able to see the tagman going to the going down the court and hit the guy in the corner for a three-point shot. So he has some passing ability. He showed some floater ability in the short role. We obviously know what he can do as a guy who could be a ducking guy or a postup. So all of that stuff is intriguing. And ultimately the biggest part of it is going to be his three-point shot because he’s a guy who has not shot the ball well from three. But he hasn’t, you know, up to this point in his career really tried it all that much. And when you look at the stroke, it doesn’t look like it’s a disjointed stroke. He doesn’t look uncomfortable. It just hasn’t gone in up to this point in his career. He had a good stretch in Long Island. I think he shot 39% on two or three attempts per game last season with Long Island. So low volume, but he did have some success there. And you look at him in his opportunities with the Nets at the end of last season and then also in his summer league appearances. He was willing and he was, you know, he said and told me that the Nets were telling him to let it fly from three. And that’s something that the three-point shot is going to have to come along for him to be an effective offensive player at the NBA level, but he’s shown the willingness. I don’t think that the stroke looks disjointed or he looks uncomfortable doing it. So, you know, if it can come around and if he can become a three-point shooter, he has a lot of tools to his game that I think could make him a really intriguing piece. And he’s also just a guy that has, you know, been more effective and shown more stuff in the opportunities that he’s gotten as opposed to guys like Tyrese Martin and Jaylen Wilson who I don’t think at all are bad players or guys that shouldn’t have an opportunity. If I’m just looking at guys who I think could have the most upside, do I think that Timmy’s going to be a highlevel rotation piece in the NBA? No. But if we’re talking about guys who could potentially be a back-end roster guy or be a back-end rotation guy for a team, that’s what you’re ultimately looking at in the, you know, tier of player that we’re talking about. And with Timmy’s offensive ability, with his understanding of positioning on both ends of the floor, if that three-point shot can come around, I think that he has the most realistic case to do that. So, Drew Timmy is the guy beyond Keon Johnson, who I think that the Nets are going to be prioritizing because of his youth. Drew Timmy’s the next guy who I would give the next shot to and I think has a chance to do something in the NBA. Is it likely? No. But, you know, of these guys, I think that he has a decent opportunity if that three-point shot can come around. And he’s 20. He’s almost 25 years old. So, he’s going to be 25 years old at the start of this coming season. And, you know, of the group, I said Keon Johnson’s the youngest. Then you have Jaylen Wilson and Drew Timmy are both 24 right now. And then you have Tyrese Martin who’s 26. And Jaylen Wilson and Tyrese Martin, I think both have intriguing things that they offer as players. You look at Jaylen Wilson, another guy who has, you know, high pass pedigree as a former Big 12 player of the year. He was the summer league MVP last season. Obviously, the Nets liked what they saw from him in his college tape in four years at Kansas, so they used the second round pick on him. Um, you know, but he’s a guy up to this point in his career. He’s a very grounded athlete. Obviously, I think he plays extremely hard, which serves him well, you know, defensively. And I think he puts himself uh in a lot of good spots for offensive rebounds and different things and hustle stats, but he has not shot the ball well, you know, from three throughout his career in college or in the pros. And he’s just a grounded athlete, which limits what you can do as an offensive player and as a defensive player. So, I’m not sure I really see the upside with Wilson there. I’m not sure I really see too much of a path for him to be a rotation guy on a good NBA team. For him, the three-point shooting would have to come along to a level that it just hasn’t yet. And I said the same thing about Timmy, but I think Timmy has other aspects of his offensive game, you know, as a play a short roll playmaker, as a guy who can score on floaters and some of those things, as a guy who can score around the basket, the size and rebounding that he brings to the table. So, you know, Jaylen Wilson, I think obviously is a good player. I think I love what he does as a hustle guy, but I’m a little skeptical of the three-point shooting. And then the last guy is Tyrese Martin, a player who I think, you know, show has the most upside here as a three-point shooter. And all these guys struggle as three-point shooters. I think Martin has shown the most in that area throughout his career, but he’s also the oldest. He’s 26. He’s going to be 27 during this coming season. I think that, you know, leads you obviously to question what the developmental track is and how much more how much more room for growth there is there. So, you know, he’s a guy who I liked what I saw from him last season. We obviously saw the game in Phoenix where he hit what, like 10 or 11 threes. I don’t remember what it was, but something crazy along those lines. He uh shot 35% from three on high volume last season. So, of this group, he was the best three-point shooter. He also had a stretch in 2022 in the G-League where he shot close to 37% from three on like five attempts per game. So, of this group historically, Tyrese Martin has been the best shooter. I thought we also saw some intriguing stuff from him as a ball handler and a guy who was handling in the pick and roll, but ultimately that’s not something that he’s going to be doing a lot in the NBA long term. So, I liked what we saw from Tyrese Martin last year. I just think the age with him being a guy who’s going to be 27 next season might, you know, limit what you think he can be developmentally and how the Nets are viewing some of these guys in comparisons to one another. But, I did outline that it is not a foregone conclusion if these guys are waved that they’re going to be off the team. They can still sign two-way spots. So, are both of these guys potential two-way candidates for the Nets? I’ll talk about that after a quick break. Coming out of the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking about Brooklyn’s roster crunch and which players are in danger of losing their spots. I said Nets have 17 players on standard contracts. If you include Cam Thomas, they can only have 15. So, two of the four who are on non-G guaranteed or partially guaranteed deals are probably going to be odd men out. I said if it were up to me, it would probably be Keon Johnson and Drew Timmy staying. I said Jaylen Wilson and Tyrese Martin are probably um the odd men out in my eyes. That’s am I saying that’s definitely how it’s going to play out? No. But that’s just how you know following the way that the Nets have been looking at prospects in the past. I think that that could be logical. And then if you look at the two-way situation, because I said that Keon Johnson is the only of those four who was ineligible to sign a two-way contract, Jaylen Wilson, Tyrese Smart, and Drew Timmy could. So, if you know Wilson and Martin or even Timmy, like if those guys were waved, they could sign two-way spots. And at the moment, right now, the Nets have two of their three two-way spots filled with a new collective bargaining agreement. You’re allowed three two-way contracts. Used to only be allowed two, but with the three, the Nets have Tosan Woman and Tyson ETN as guys on two-way contracts. But just because they’re on two-way contracts now doesn’t mean they’re going to be enter the entering the season. Those two-way deals are not guaranteed. I think it’s until like January 7th or January 10th or something along those lines. So, not until midway through the season. So, ETN A Woman are guys who could be moved you who could be waved and moved off their two-way spots to make space even if they’re kept. The Nets still have one two-way spot available. So, Tyrese Martin and Jaylen Wilson are guys who could be two-way candidates if they are waved. Is it the most likely outcome? I don’t know. know, you know, it’s not too often that you see guys who were, you know, a draft pick like Jaylen Wilson waved by the team that they were drafted by and then signed to a two-way contract or a guy like Tyrese Martin who was on a two-way contract last season and then converted into a standard deal um you know and given a partially guaranteed contract for this coming season. Are you going to take him from a two-way then to a standard deal then wave him and put him back on a two-way contract? That’s not usually how it goes, but you know, if these guys don’t have any opportun any other opportunities and they want to stick in the NBA, they do have the ability to sign two-way contracts with the team. So, it’s definitely, you know, not out of the realm of possibilities. And if you’re talking about Tyrese Martin and Jaylen Wilson, you know, as opposed to Tossana Woman and Tyson ETN, I think that they both have more realistic cases to stick in the NBA long term. And I think that’s pretty clear from them getting standard roster spots and those other guys aren’t not getting them. You know, you look at uh Tossana Woman. I think he’s an interesting player. He’s a guy who has a lot of driving ability, a guy who was a big post up player at Princeton, but another guy who’s never been a three-point shooter and of this group has been the least willing three-point shooter thus far. So, you know, even at summer league, he really wouldn’t take threes. That’s not how the Nets want to play the game. He’s much more interested in driving the ball. I think we saw in um the games that Tosson played, I said there really wasn’t a driving lane that Tosan didn’t like. he was putting it up if he got it whenever he got it. I think it might have frustrated some Nets fans because they had the draft pick so they probably wanted to see shooting the ball more. But bottom line is he was not willing as a three-point shooter. And then you have Tyson Etien, a guy who plays extremely hard, is very willing as a three-point shooter. You know, was one of the best three-point shooters in the G-League last season. I think shot like 46 or 47 attempt uh 46 or 47% on five or six attempts per game. A really high level three-point shooter. We saw that in Las Vegas at summer league as well. but he’s very undersized for an NBA player. He’s at, you know, around six six foot flat, 6’1. So, you don’t really see too many of those guys sticking the NBA long term, especially if they’re not high level ball handlers. So, um, you know, I’m not too hopeful about ETN or or Aulman being, you know, long-term rotation pieces in the NBA. And I think that Martin and Wilson have that potential maybe to be something, but it would depend on whether those guys want to accept two-way contracts and kind of take a demotion to remain with the Nets organization, which is not always the most likely path, but it’s definitely, you know, not out of the realm of possibilities. I think those are both guys if the Nets are looking to keep as much talent in the building as possible, those are guys that could be candidates to do something like that. And they also could be guys who keep their standard roster spots. You know what I’m saying? I’m giving my predictions. I think the Johnson one I’m pretty confident in. Beyond that with Timmy Wilson and Martin, I think all of those guys have showed the Nets things that they like about them, but they all just have different cases for why they could be, you know, potential rotation pieces or potential backend roster guys in the NBA long term. And ultimately, I think that Timmy just has the most potential in that regard. But we’ll see. We’ll see how it plays out. We have a lot more NBA offseason talk ahead. The Nets still have more moves to make. Maybe they bring in another player via salary dump or another free agent signing or something like that and then another one of these guys might have to be out the door because there’s even less roster space. So, we’ll see. We’ll have coverage of all that throughout the rest of the offseason and into training camp. But that does it for this episode of Locked on Nets. Thank you to all of you for tuning in and supporting the show. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Locked on Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy this content, smash that like button. Leave a comment. Let me know what you think of these guys. Let me know what you think of which player the Nets should prioritize in training camp. Which guys you think might be out the door. But I’ll have more coverage of all that and more here on Locked on Nets when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater discusses the Brooklyn Nets’ roster dilemma after their historic 2025 NBA Draft. He analyzes why there is added competition for the team’s final roster spots and which players could be casualties ahead of next season.

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