Brooklyn's season ends mercilessly on Sunday.
Then they begin what net head coach Jordi Fernandez repeatedly calls the biggest summer of their lives.
Aside from the exaggeration, it's easy to see why.
The Nets' future will be determined in exactly one month in the NBA Draft Lottery on May 12th.
It's not happening yet, but it's one of the most important points in recent history.
This is why I was tired of trying this season.
Regardless of what happens in Sunday's season finale against the Knicks, Brooklyn is guaranteed to finish with the league's sixth record. This is the 6th best odds in the lottery.
The net has a 9.0% chance of winning and a 37.2% odds to secure the coveted top four picks.
However, the most likely outcome is much worse, landing in the 7th (29.8 percent) or 8th (20.6).
Brooklyn GM Sean Marks has enthusiastically collected not only the most cap space in the league (well above $50 million this summer) but also future draft picks (31).
The net has five picks in June, four of which are first rounders.
Coming over the weekend, they were scheduled for a sixth draft, tied up at 18th, 25, 27 and 36.
“I don't know where the lottery is heading because that's part of the odds,” Fernandez said recently. “So you can only control what you can control, and now that's something we know for sure.
“This is not the end of anything. …This is the next game and the next game that will become the most important summer of our lives.”
After the finale at the Barclays Center on Sunday, rival Knicks head into the postseason and netting will go into the offseason.
That's where Mark has an important call.
Some are influenced by things they can't control.
Potential bonds – and there are probably a few, packed with nine teams within four games in the rankings, but breaks a few days after the regular season ends.
Then comes all the important lottery where the net can land the Cooper Flag or land on the 10th lowest.
That could affect what comes next.
Sources have repeatedly posted that some of the ideas in collecting the league's best 13 tradeable first round picks is to use at least some trades for an established star rather than actually creating everything.
Two separate sources suggest that Giannis Antetokounmpo is at the top of his wish list.
But if he doesn't?
NET is not only required to decide about their own free agents (unlimited agents like Trendon Watford), including restricted free agents like Cam Thomas, Day'ron Sharpe, Ziaire Williams, and unlimited agents like Trendon Watford, but they are also on the market.
That means determining the direction.
Do they tank? Or will they try?
They are in a unique position to be the only team outside of Detroit (and perhaps Utah).
They can offer seats to young restricted free agents who fit their timeline, such as Josh Giddy, Quentin Grimes, Santi Aldama, Jonathan Cuminga, or Ty Jerome.
But it has a catch.
Or like Catch 22.
Even if they plunge into the market for impactful players and narrow down to positive contracts that will become tradable assets in a year – will undermine the chances of tanking again in the 2026 draft class, which seems to be just as deep as this.
They obviously made their choice for next year.
Marks shortens the sun with Kevin Durant's trade, which looks wise.
Last summer, letting go of the Phoenix pick was the price he paid to win his first round of 2025 and 2026 from Houston.
Landing an MVP like Antetokounmpo is clearly a home run, but adding fewer players is worth turning that rocket trade into a sinking cost?
Another option is for Mark to follow the blueprint of his first successful Brooklyn reconstruction.
He could inked less influential players to pack that space in 2026 for a loading free agent class or aim for another lottery pick in a one-year deal, or a two-year agreement with team options.
After trading Dorian Finney Smith and Dennis Schroeder earlier this season, he was able to flip Cam Johnson and Nick Claxton for fewer players in a massive expiration deal with accompanying.
In short, you get paid picks to lose.
Or take his cake and eat it.
