Are more MAJOR Brooklyn Nets trades looming? Can the team land a TOP draft pick? | Fan-Take Friday

Are more MAJOR Brooklyn Nets trades looming? Can the team land a TOP draft pick? | Fan-Take Friday

Coming up, what moves are left for the Nets to make this summer? Which players could be traded during the season? Where will the team finish? I’ll answer all those fan questions and more after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked Onet. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast. right here on the Locked On podcast network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets beat reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show is 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 MBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And on today’s show, it’s fan Friday. I took questions from listeners on a wide range of subjects, including the team’s plan for next season, potential offseason and inseason moves, the new look locker room, and more. So, let’s get right into it. Just hitting these in the order that they came in. First question, are you confident the Nets will be a bottom three team this year with CT, Cam Thomas in a prove it year, uh, new MPJ, and developing ball handlers in multiple roles compared to last year? And am I confident the Nets are going to be a bottom three team? I’m confident that they’ll be in that range. I’m confident that they’ll be worse than they were last season. I think they’ll finish worse than they did last season. They finished with the sixth worst record in the league last year. And I think if you just look at the moves that they’ve made, you know, last year and into this year, it does seem like there is a greater focus on youth, on player development, and in turn on draft position. I talked about this at length on previous pods, but going from Dennis Shruder and D’Angelo Russell, particularly Shruder in the beginning of the season last year when he was playing like one of the top point guards in the league to all rookie ball handlers and rookie point guards and Yay Gordome, Nolan Troy, Ben Saraf, that is going to be a big drop off. And then outside of that, I mean, this is a Nets team that was already at a severe, you know, shot creation deficit last year. and you take away a guy like Schruder who’s proven that he can be, you know, somewhat of a self-creator and a playmaker and an offensive engine and then you replace him with rookie ball handlers, that’s a big step back. There’s obviously been a lot of debate about is Cam Johnson that much better of a player than Michael Porter Jr. The juryy’s still on that, but I think I’m confident in saying that Cam Johnson is a superior ball handler, a superior self-creator in doing some of those things outside of just spot-up shooting. I think he’s better than that, better at that than Michael Porter Jr. Now MPJ didn’t do a ton of that in Denver with Jamal Murray and Nicole Joic dominating things. So could he get better at that and improve? We’ll see. But I do think that Cam Johnson is a little bit of a step above MPJ in that regard. So the shot creation I think is just going to be at a severe deficit compared to what it was last year. Now you say maybe we get a healthier Cam Thomas and he only played 25 games last year. Maybe he plays 60 or 70 games this year. That improves the shot creation a lot. But still, I think there’s not going to be as much structure around him with so many rookie guys handling the ball and initiating the offense. And if Cam does play, we’ve seen that he’s going to give some things back on the other end because he has not been a good defender up to this point in his career. So, I think that this roster and this team is clearly a lot younger and in turn, I think is worse than it was when the Nets opened the year last year. And it really that was what put the Nets behind the eight-ball was they started out nine and 10. They really after that played like one of the worst teams in the league and that was because the Nets took a lot of steps to trade away guys like Dennis Shrud, like Dorian, Finny Smith and handle some of those things. So I think that’s going to be the situation from the jump. What we saw after those guys left, it’s going to look more like it did after they were gone. And that’s going to be straight out of the gate this season. The Nets, the schedule just released. If you look at the Net’s first 10, 20 games, you say how many wins you think they’re going to get. I think it’s going to be a much slower start this year than it was last year. So, I do think that they will be in the range of a bottom three team. I think they’ll be, you know, you know, at more at the forefront of that tank race than they were at the beginning of the year last season. Next question. Of the interviews and questions you’ve done with Nets players and staff over the years, what was most interesting interaction and what was the most enjoyable? It’s a really good question. I think there’s I’ve talked to so many, you know, I’ve been on the Nets beat for three seasons now. I talked to so many players, so many coaches, so many people around the league during that span. If we’re talking players, one that really stood out, I mean, getting to come in my first year and interview Kevin Durant and just speak to him almost on a daily basis, that was really great. And I’d say that he was one of the most interesting and enjoyable people that I talked to regardless of what was going on off the court with the team, all the issues that you had. What I appreciated about KD is in a, you know, NBA where so many people or just pro sports in general where so many players are so media trained to the max. They don’t want to let anything go. It’s the most vanilla answers a lot of the time with so many guys. I felt like KD was very candid a lot of the time and he said what was on his mind and sometimes that maybe ruffled some feathers and sometimes it just meant him getting really into the weeds of basketball. And I think regardless of what you think about KD, I think we all can agree that he’s one of the biggest hoop heads that you’re ever going to come across. And some of his answers were so honest and so insightful about what was going right or a lot of the time what was going wrong and he didn’t mince words. So I thought that getting to, you know, get a look into how his basketball mind worked, how he was viewing things, you know, how I saw things on the court and then did he see the same things, how much, you know, more was he just seeing that I would obviously have no idea about. It was really interesting to hear him talk. I think Cam Johnson, another guy who, you know, he’s obviously gone now, but I think he was really insightful. He was really open with the media. He was always just great with access and always being there and always bringing in energy when we wanted to talk to him. Maybe there were a few moments where he didn’t necessarily want to address some things, but for the most part, he was just a really great guy to talk to. If we’re talking coaches, I would say, you know, one guy who hasn’t been on the Net staff since I’ve been on the beat, but Kenny Atinson, a former Nets coach, I’ve gotten, you know, a chance to speak one-on-one with Kenny, and then I got a chance to obviously talk to him before the Nets played the Cavaliers last season. And, you know, a lot of coaches, it’s a lot of coach speak in the NBA now. They don’t want to give too much away. They’re also media trained. And the times that I’ve gotten to speak with Kenny, I’ve asked him maybe just a simple question to start things off and he will go on for four or five minutes giving you every detail he could possibly think about that. So he was really great to talk to. So of the players and coaches, those are the guys I would say, but there’s so many and you know there’ll be so many more over the years. So I’m really looking forward to that. Next question. What’s the best realistic asset the Nets can get with the remainder of their cap space? doesn’t seem like a lot is going on in the NBA this off seasonason. And that’s a good question. You know, the Nets are still the only team in the NBA with cap space. They have over $20 million left after uh doing their salary dumps from Michael Porter Jr. and Terrence Man. So, there could still be more moves to be made. At this juncture, I know that the Nets are still gauging, you know, interest around the league and things they can do with their cal space. They’re still making calls, but I wouldn’t expect them to get a premium asset at this point in the offseason because I think if there was a deal like that to be made, it would have been done already. I mean, you look at using their cap space, like what are the types of moves that they’re looking to do? It would obviously be salary dumps and accumulating more draft capital and at this point, is there going to be a move where they can get a first round pick or anything significant? Probably not. Like you look at the teams that are still trying to shed salary. Like the Boston Celtics were one of those teams. They just operate they just executed a salary dump with the Utah Jazz. They traded George Nang there and uh gave the Jazz a couple second round picks. Like the Nets could have been on that, but it didn’t seem like that they really thought that that was worth their while. So could there be more moves to be made? The Celtics are reportedly, you know, still gauging interest in Anthony Simons. They could look to dump him to get even more brea breathing room below the luxury tax from the second apron and first apron. So, could that be a potential move? Maybe. But are they going to give up a first round pick or anything significant to do that? It doesn’t seem like it or at least not right now. Maybe as the season progresses, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I think, you know, the Nets have the remainder of their cap space. They could do something. they could hold that cap space into the off season because we see sometimes at the trade deadline teams are getting off trying to get off money and trying to do things that they weren’t doing before because situations change where teams are at in the standings versus where they expected to be. That always changes midway through the year. So, the Nets don’t have to use all of that cap space going into the season. So, they could look to, you know, hold on to some of it and then just spend to get up to the minimum. That could mean resigning Cam Thomas into that cap space. They could also resign Dron Sharp and Zyu Williams with that cap space as opposed to using the room exception for one of those guys. So, we’ll see. But I wouldn’t bank on the Nets getting any kind of premium asset at this point in the offseason using their cap space. We got a lot more questions from listeners on a wide range of subjects including the Nets roster, including potential moves that could be made in season and more. So, we’ll get to all those after a quick break. But before that, I want to tell you about our friends over at Monarch Money. Guys, most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or your phone. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. 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Rolling through more questions and takes I got from all of you listeners. Next question. Pull back the curtains and tell us what it’s like to be a beat reporter/podcast host. What does a day look like for you? Really good question there. So, a regular day, we’ll say during the regular season. And I’m obviously new to the lockdown network and I’m going to be doing a lot more podcasting uh content during the season. It’s a daily pod. So, during the season, it’s Monday through Friday. So, that’s a lot of volume. But during the year it’s, you know, it’s going to the games obviously every day, going to the practice, just being around the team as much as possible. As a beat reporter, you know, as opposed to like a columnist or something where you’re giving opinions more of the time. A beat reporter or opinions in your writing. A B reporter, you’re just you need to know everything that’s going on with the team at all times or at least that’s the goal. That’s the standard that you strive for. So on the B reporting aspect of it, I’m going to games. I’m going to practices. I’m getting to games hours early. It’s just talking to people around the arena constantly around the practice facility trying to get to know everybody and get the best sense of what’s going on on the court and in the locker room. And it’s a lot of work. You know, it’s obviously a lot of a lot of writing. I do a ton of volume on clutchoints.com. You know, writing multiple articles every day during the season, but it’s also outside of that just talking to people and trying to build relationships and trying to know everything about what’s going on with the team. So, that takes up a lot of your time. And now with the podcast angle, doing a daily pod, it’s also just networking, not just with people around the team and all those things, but also people around the league, potential guests, potential different angles that you can bring to the show and, you know, get a lot of interesting different people on. So during the year, we’re going to have a ton of more guests on the pod, a ton of different people who can talk about a ton of different angles surrounding the net. So that’ll be really fun. But it’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of brainstorming what goes into the show, how you’re going to line up the topics and the segments every day. every week. So, it’s a lot. There’s a lot going on from a lot of different angles, but the end of the day, you get to write about basketball. You get to talk about basketball. You get to watch basketball for a living. So, I I really wouldn’t have it any other way. And it’s really an awesome job. And, you know, having these jobs has been a dream come true to for me. And I want to thank all you guys for following because that’s what gives me the ability is you guys consuming this, you guys reading the articles, you guys watching and listening to the podcast. It makes it so there’s a demand and that I’m able to do this stuff. So, I’m really appreciative to you for that. Next question. Do you think Michael Porter Jr. will be a trade candidate this season? Seems like the Nets may have acquired him with the idea of flipping him later on for value. You know, could MPJ be a trade candidate this season? It’s not out of the realm of possibilities, but I don’t think it’s the most likely scenario. I think if the Nets are looking to flip him, I think it’s more likely that it would be, you know, when his contract is expiring the following season, I think that there would be it would be a little bit more movable and there’d be a little bit in more interest in that. And even then, it might be difficult because he’s making close to $40 million. But, you know, if MPJ really starts showing things that he hasn’t shown before, if he rehabilitates his value to a place where a team thinks it’s worth it, maybe they could do it. But the scenario where I see MPJ being traded from the Nets would be if it was either a team trying to clear cap space in a salary dump. So I think that would probably be more the case next or the season after this coming season when he’s an expiring contract or if it’s a trade for a star, say Giannis or whoever comes on the trade block, the Nets throw their hand in the ring. You have $40 million in matching salary there right off the bat. You have a player who might be interesting to a team like the Bucks or who you ever want to say. So, in that scenario, I could see MPJ being traded this season. But the salary dump scenario or maybe even a team just taking him, not in a star deal, but liking him and wanting to take him on, I think that would be more when he’s an expiring contract after this coming season in 2026 27. Next question. If the net if the Nets fail to get a top four pick and see rough but expected year from their rookies, can you see Shawn Marx trading our for our 27 swap back? Would he trade the 2032 Denver pick for the 2027 swap? You know, I probably I don’t really see that, you know, trading that 2032 Denver pick. That’s the best draft pick that the Nets have right now in terms of trade value. That was a prized asset that they got back in that Cam Johnson trade obviously. And would they trade that to get their swap back? I definitely don’t think so. Could they look to trade their trade other things to get their swap back? Definitely. I mean, they have nine tradable first round picks right now. They have young prospects. They have a lot of things they could try to trade with the Rockets to get that swap back. But I would say the Nets tanked last season. They’re heading for another tank season this year. I really think that they’re going to want to take a step towards contention next year. And that might be through the draft with their guys developing into their sophomore year in that 2026 27 season. That could be whoever they get in the draft this coming year, giving them a big boost as a rookie. That could be moves that they look to make outside of that if a star becomes available. I just don’t think that the Nets want to go through three straight years of tanking and losing. Now, it’s going to be the first year that they’re looking probably to take a step back towards being competitive. So, in that first season, they could still be bad. So, they could still want to get that pick back. So, they definitely could try to get that pick back because even if they make an improvement, that pick could still be a late lottery pick. So, we’ll see. Do I think they would trade that 2032 Denver first for it? I don’t. But, I could see them maybe trying to trade other things to get that swap back. But if it’s looking like they’re going to be a bad team again, it’s going to take a lot obviously to get that back from Houston. So, we’ll see. But I do think that the Nets are definitely going to be trying to make somewhat of a substantial improvement during that 2026 27 season. So, that could obviously influence their urgency to get that swap back. Last question before another break. What players do you think have the most realistic chance of being traded during this season? I just touched on MPJ. I don’t think he’s the most realistic. If I had to say the most realistic to me move this year, I’d probably say probably Cam Thomas and Nick Claxton. Those are the two guys that I could see because Nick Claxton, I think that his contract is not going to be an extremely difficult contract to move with it being descending into its final two years. Now, I think it could have better value during those final two years because it’s easier to match in terms of salary and also it’ll just be more attracted because he’s at a lower number. But Nick said that he was playing hurt for much of last season. and he said he hurt his back last off season that kind of lingered throughout the whole year and he said in his exit interview that he was going to use this summer to get right. So if he gets right physically and he looks great coming out of the gate and he looks like he has a you know more explosiveness has regained the motor that he had during that defensive player of the year potential season. Could he have more value and could they move on from him during the season? I think they definitely could because I talked about this on a recent episode with Lucas Kaplan and you look at their roster they have Dron Sharp waiting in the wings. They just obviously drafted Danny Wolf. They’re a roster that is trending more towards youth. Obviously, they brought in five, you know, four 19 year olds and one 21 year old in the draft. They have other young guys and Noah Clowny and Dariq Whitehead. They’re going to get younger through this coming draft in 2026. Nick Quaxton’s going to be 27 during the season. So, does he not fit the timeline? Not necessarily. He’s young enough to be a part of it, but is he going to be a part of the long-term future of the team? I think the jury is very much out on that just because the timeline it has been reset so much. So, we’ll see if there’s a team that’s needy for a center, if somebody suffers an injury or there’s just a team that needs someone in the middle and Nick Claxton is playing well. I definitely think that he’d be a trade candidate. And then Cam Thomas for obvious reasons. I’m not going to get fully into it again, but I’ve outlined the reasons that it doesn’t seem like he’s a part of the Net’s future plans. So, or a definite part of the Net’s future plan. So, if whether they sign him to a short-term contract or whether he signs that qualifying offer, I think he could definitely be somebody who could potentially be on the trade block, especially if he signs that qualifying offer, he’s going to be an unrestricted free agent during the coming off season. So, at that point, it’s pretty much a signal that he’s going to be gone. So, the Nets would be looking probably to trade him for whatever they could get for him, but they might not be able to get anything. And also, he’ll have trade veto right if he signs the qualifying offer. So, he’d have to sign off on any deal. that would limit the Net’s leverage, but maybe they could find a deal that they like and that he likes if he signs that and they could uh swing something that way. But we’ll see. Got a few more questions about some potential roster moves, some potential locker room things. I’ll touch on all that and more when I close out Locked on Nets after a quick break. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode on this fan take Friday. Have a few more takes and questions I got from you listeners. So rolling right through. Any ideas on lastminute trades/signings to get to the minimum limit for the 2026 season? Minimum limit. I’m assuming you’re talking about spending the next remaining salary cap space. I touched on this briefly before, but I don’t really think that like there’s a significant trade where they’re getting like a significant salary dump trade where they’re getting a premium asset or anything along those lines. Now, could they swing a a trade where they get multiple second round picks or something like that? Maybe they get a player that they feel like they could rehabilitate value, whether it’s an Anthony Simons or someone like that. I think that could potentially be in, you know, the cards. Last minute free agent signings. I don’t think the Nets are really in the market for a free agent signing at this point because they’re already at, if you include Cam Thomas, they’re at, I think, 18 standard contracts. They’re only allowed to carry 15 during the season. So, there isn’t really any any more room at training camp to bring in more players. So, and also they just don’t really have any incentive to try to improve through the free agent market right now and spend more money. So, using up the remaining cap space, I think the most likely way that that’s going to happen is from the next free agent signing incumbent guys, whether it’s uh Zire Williams, Dron Sharp, Cam Thomas, they have all those guys. They can sign them with C. In Cam’s case, they can exceed the cap to sign him. So, they can go over the cap to sign him with Zire and Dron. They can sign them into cap space or they can use the room exception which allows them to exceed the cap to sign one of them. That’s $8 million at exception. Both those guys sign $6 million contracts. So with one of D with one of Dron or Zire and with Cam Thomas, they can exceed the cap or they can just sign those guys in the cap space and not exceed the cap at all. Right now, I’d say that’s probably the likeliest scenario because Nets are in a position where if there isn’t a salary dump of their liking, there really is no reason to bring in extra money on the payroll and then exceed the cap and add money to the payroll when you’re just not trying to be good this year. So, I think it would make the most sense for them to sign those guys using cap space and that’ll be how they get up to that minimum limit. Next question. Are Terrence man, Michael Porter Jr., and Nick Claxton enough as far as veteran leadership goes, especially at point guard. Who do men and Shroy look for look to for advice, good habits, all the rookie learning curve things? It’s an interesting question and you know, I don’t really know. I mean, Terrence, man, I’ve talked to him. He said that he’s excited to step into a leadership role. He’s obviously the only oldest guy on the team. That’s a new position for him, though. He’s only 28 years old. He’s not old by any stretch of the imagination, but he is the oldest player on this team, which just speaks to how young the roster is. He said that he’s excited to take on that role. He seems like a great player. I’ve only heard good things about him from around the league. So, he should help in that regard. Michael Porter Jr. obviously a really interesting guy. He’s had a lot of really interesting things to say this off seasonason. But, do I think that, you know, while some people might be critical about some of the things that he’s been saying, do I think that he’s like a bad guy by any stretch? No. Like I’ve talked to people I talked to people who covered him in Denver and they say that he’s a great guy to talk to. They say he always has a good attitude. So we’ll see. I mean and then Nick Claxton obviously it’s kind of weird that he’s a veteran at this point but he really is going in what into his seventh season. So are they enough as far as veteran leadership goes? I think it’s probably a step down from what the Nets started the year at last year with Dennis Shruder, Cam Johnson, Dorian Finny Smith, guys who really been around the league and done it and especially a guy like Cam Johnson who emerged as a really respected voice in the locker room last year. But we’ll see. I mean, I think Terrence man, Michael Porter Jr., Clax, they might be able to take up that mantle and I definitely think that um they’ll at least try. So, we’ll see. But from the point guard perspective with Gman and Shore, it is interesting because there is no veteran point guard on this team. So a lot of that player development, a lot of those things, it’s how to be a pro, all the things that you learn, it’s going to come from the coaching shop. But I will say from talking with Yman, talking from with Troy, all the other Nets rookies, they really seem like they have good heads on their shoulders and they’re ready to be about the right things. Last take. This isn’t a question, but a good segment will be to do power rankings on the Flatbush Five as the season progresses. Um, Flash, Flatbush Five, I’m assuming you’re talking about the Nets five rookie first round picks. I haven’t heard that yet, that nickname. Maybe I need to be in the Twitter sphere more and, you know, just keep my eye out. But that is great. And, you know, I’m definitely going to be keeping tabs obviously on how all these rookies are developing. You know, who’s looked good, who hasn’t looked good. So naturally, there’s just going to be a lot of um coverage, a lot of following. I think fans, you know, in addition, the two main focuses are going to be draft position and also player development. And that player development mostly is going to be about these rookie guys. So I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on all of those guys. And that would be interesting power rankings of who’s playing the best throughout the year. So maybe something that I’ll think about. But that’s all the questions, all the takes we have on this fan take Friday. Thank you to all of you who took the time to submit questions or takes. I really appreciate it. That does it for this episode of Locked on Nets. If you guys do not already, subscribe to the show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, make sure to smash that like button. Leave a comment. Let me know what you think about any of these questions. Let me know what you think about the Nets roster, potential moves, who you think could be trade candidates this season, all of it. We got a lot more to talk about. and I’m rolling on through August. So, I’ll be back on Monday talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater answers questions from Brooklyn Nets fans on remaining offseason moves, in-season trade candidates, and more. He analyzes the team cap space situation, roster outlook, and most likely outcomes during the 2025-26 campaign.

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