Assessing the State of the Brooklyn Nets' Rebuild

The blueprint to a successful rebuild already exists in the NBA — how will the Nets use it?

Feb 13, 2024; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Ben Simmons (10) brings the ball up court in the third quarter against the Boston Celtics at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The Brooklyn Nets’ upcoming season starts the rebuild prompted by Mikal Bridges’ trade to the New York Knicks.

Brooklyn will not be good in 2024-25 barring major surprises. But that doesn’t mean the team has to be boring.

Recently, the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Utah Jazz have provided successful rebuilding blueprints. The Nets have the pieces, and ideally the patience, to follow a similar trail for long-term success.

That starts with the NBA Draft.

Brooklyn must invest time and resources into developing Noah Clowney, Day’Ron Sharpe and Dariq Whitehead. All three can become playoff rotation players.

Clowney will hopefully see a production boost after averaging a modest but encouraging six points and four rebounds as a rookie.

Sharpe needs to take a leap forward this season. His rebounding can be outlier good — the Nets big averaged 14.2 rebounds per 36 minutes last year — but he hasn’t provided consistent long stretches on the court. Can Sharpe play 20-30 minutes, rather than 10-15?

Whitehead struggled in Summer League but that wasn’t a shocker given that he’s still coming back from injury. The Duke product will likely spend time with the Long Island Nets this season, but being a consistent part of the rotation in 2025 should be the goal. It’s worth remembering that Whitehead has been highly touted since his early teenage years.

In future drafts, Brooklyn cannot be afraid to provide internal competition and alternatives by selecting players with similar archetypes or roles.

The Thunder did this with Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams, Tre Mann, Cason Wallace — or this draft, Nikola Topic, Ajay Mitchell and Dillon Jones. Utah also has plenty of ball-handlers, drafting Cody Williams and Isaiah Collier while already having Keyonte George and Collin Sexton.

In 2025 and later, Brooklyn, for example, should not pass on score-first prospects or defensive bigs just because of Nic Claxton or Cam Thomas.

With Keon Johnson or Ziaire Williams, more reps and a freer role to explore how they look in a different situation should be explored. Both have NBA tools and flashes, particularly Williams, that could still come together.

Thinking shorter term, the Nets need to extract value from their veteran players on expiring contracts.

Ben Simmons is the x-factor after two consecutive season-ending back injuries.

Bojan Bogdanovic, untradeable with other players until September 6, is an NBA veteran with league-wide cache.

Dennis Schröder, one of the best guards in the world when he puts on the German national team jersey, could mentor the Nets' playmakers akin to Chris Paul with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Dorian Finney-Smith will interest playoff teams, although his player option for next season would come up in discussions.

And Cam Johnson, on a 4-year, $94 million contract until 2027, needs to remain engaged and flesh out his skillset.

A successful win-loss record won’t be on the cards for the Nets this season, but the focus is long-term and should be on developing the young pieces, drafting the player types that lead to winning, and sensibly tapping into veterans.

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