Brooklyn Nets NBA Draft Notebook: Is ‘Tanking’ Still Within Reach?

The Brooklyn Nets are now 19-34 following Monday's win against the Charlotte Hornets, with Tankathon projecting the team's 2025 NBA Draft to start with the No. 6 overall pick.

Nets general manager Sean Marks has never picked higher during his tenure with the team, and he’s been doing his due diligence. Brooklyn’s head decision-maker was recently spotted watching the likes of Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey, Kasparas Jakucionis, VJ Edgecombe or Egor Demin. All of those names, except for maybe Demin, are contenders to go in the top five of the draft — or even higher.

At the same time, hopes of a full-on tank for the Nets have likely evaporated. The team held onto its best player this season, Cam Johnson, through the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Brooklyn parted with Dennis Schröder, Dorian Finney-Smith and Ben Simmons in the last few weeks, valuable contributors, but it also incorporated former all-star D’Angelo Russell.

Brooklyn is 5-5 over the last ten games. The team’s defense, in particular, has really improved. Head coach Jordi Fernández has recently been praising his bigs, Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe, for their effort patrolling the paint — but it’s really been a team-wide effort. Edgecombe, whom Marks is now familiar with in-person, stands out as one of the best defenders in the 2025 draft.

Another name high in the draft to watch on that end is Duke center Khaman Maluach. The South Sudanese prospect is 18 until September, and he’s a highly impactful presence at the rim on both ends. Maluach, who has World Cup and Olympics experience despite only picking up basketball in 2019, is making a monster 80.8% of his shots at the basket, per Synergy. His numbers in terms of blocks don’t pop as much (1.1 per game), but he’s grown tremendously in terms of discipline and using his size to be a deterrent.

One draft storyline that’s relevant to the Nets pertains to Giannis Antetokounmpo’s recent left calf train. The Bucks will be without the Greek forward through the All-Star break, which is important since one of Brooklyn’s four first round picks in the 2025 draft comes via Milwaukee. That selection would currently be at No. 19.

The Nets have 31 draft picks — 15 first-rounders, 16 second-rounders — over the next seven years, but it’s worth pointing out that the team stayed put at the trade deadline. Other organizations going through rebuilds, such as the Utah Jazz (five second-rounders) or the Washington Wizards (AJ Johnson, first-rounders and more), were active. Even the Portland Trail Blazers, who didn’t do anything at the deadline either, later signed French playmaking prospect Sidy Cissoko to a two-way contract.

Brooklyn’s only post-deadline move so far has been buying out Ben Simmons. There’s a possibility that the team could convert a two-way player, such as Tyrese Martin, to a standard contract. The team would then theoretically have an open two-way spot to explore, with Reece Beekman and Tosan Evbuomwan (he’s on a two-year, two-way) being the other two players on that type of contract.

Watch List:

Here are three games to watch per day for this week of the 2025 draft cycle:

Tuesday, Feb. 11: Illinois vs. UCLA @ 8 PM ET — Kasparas Jakucionis, Tomislav Ivisic, Will Riley (Illinois); Eric Dailey Jr., Aday Mara, Kobe Johnson (UCLA)

Tuesday, Feb. 11: Texas vs. Alabama @ 9 PM ET — Tre Johnson, Arthur Kaluma (Texas); Labaron Philon, Derrion Reid, Mouhamed Dioubate, Mark Sears, Grant Nelson (Alabama)

Tuesday, Feb. 11: Texas A&M vs. Georgia @ 9 PM ET — Asa Newell, Somto Cyril (Georgia)

Wednesday, Feb. 12: Duke vs. Cal @ 9 PM ET — Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel, Isaiah Evans, Tyrese Proctor, Sion James (Duke); Andrej Stojakovic (Cal)

Wednesday, Feb. 12: South Carolina vs. Ole Miss @ 7 PM ET — Matthew Murrell, Eduardo Klafke (Ole Miss); Collin Murray-Boyles (South Carolina)

Wednesday, Feb. 12: Mizzou vs. Oklahoma @ 9 PM ET — Jeremiah Fears (Oklahoma)

Thursday, Feb. 13: Sydney Kings vs. Adelaide 36ers (Australian NBL) @ 3:30 AM ET — Alex Toohey (Sydney)

Thursday, Feb. 13: Unicaja vs. Joventut (Spanish Copa del Rey) @ 12:30 PM ET — Michael Ruzic (Joventut)

Thursday, Feb. 13: Nebraska vs. Maryland @ 7 PM ET — Derik Queen (Maryland)

Friday, Feb. 14: Cholet vs. Le Mans (French League Cup) @ 7 AM ET — Noah Penda (Le Mans); Mohamed Diawara (Cholet)

Friday, Feb. 14: Paris vs. Saint-Quentin (French League Cup) @ 9:30 AM ET — Nolan Traoré (Saint-Quentin)

Friday, Feb. 14: Real Madrid vs. Manresa (Spanish Copa del Rey) @ 12:30 PM ET — Hugo González, Eli John Ndiaye (Real Madrid); Mario Saint-Supery, Musa Sagnia (Manresa)

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