Nets general manager Sean Marks insisted Mikal Bridges didn’t force Brooklyn into a rebuild by asking for a trade.
But make no mistake: they are in the midst of a total rebuild.
And he swears it won’t be long.
Marks remains confident that Brooklyn remains attractive despite the Big Three seeking trades and Bridges being moved.
“This is something we’re going to proceed strategically, but do I think this will take time to build? We’re going to proceed strategically, but being in this market and having this amount of draft assets, I think we’ve done this before,” Marks said. “It’s not something we’re in a rush by any means, but I don’t think it’s a long process either.”
Reconstructions come in all shapes and sizes.
And speed.
The Pistons have had just one winning season since 2007-08 and none since 2015-16, and have struggled for at least five years.
But Houston’s rebuild was just as quick as Indiana’s.
The Nets are hoping to follow Houston’s path instead of Detroit’s.
Coming off a 32-50 season and unable to find a star player to pair with Bridges, the team moved him.
“We could have waited. There are a lot of guys who want to play with Michal,” Marks said, “but for us, this gives us a clear direction and a path to build our team.”
Even if that means a trade with the rival Knicks.
“We need to look at ourselves in the mirror as an organization and ask ourselves, ‘What is our best path forward, how do we get there, and how do we achieve the sustainable success that we want?'” Marks says. [add] The amount of draft assets we had last year will help our trajectory in the long run.”
That was a huge amount of money.
Marks said two months after hiring head coach Jordi Fernandez and the day before re-signing free agent Nic Claxton, both of whom were warned about the possibility, the Nets reversed course.
Brooklyn agreed to the deal with Houston and received two first-round draft picks in 2025 and ’26.
In exchange for Bridges, the team received the Knicks’ first-round picks in 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031, a 2028 first-round pick in exchange, and the Bucks’ first-round pick in 2025.
They’ll even get a second-round pick back next year.
That means they could have six picks in next June’s draft, and potentially as many as five in the top 40. Experts see this draft as deep and loaded with talent.
“We’re always looking two, three, four years out and trying to pave the way. If we hadn’t held onto our picks in this situation, it would have been a disservice to those two draft classes, honestly,” Marks said. “So we’re pretty well-endowed with picks right now, especially in ’25. We’ll see how we navigate that, but I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
That future will be built around up to $80 million in cap space next summer and 16 first-round picks over the next seven years.
Many of the allegations came from Bridges’ business associates, and Marks maintained that Bridges never asked him to quit.
“There have been reports that Mikal was looking to leave the team or asking for a trade. That’s far from the truth,” Marks said. “That’s not Mikal’s character. That’s not who he is and that’s definitely not what’s happening. That’s what he was told when I called him and told him we were at the 2-yard line.”
The Nets crossed the finish line by trading for Bridges.
But now they are just beginning their next drive, a new rebuild.
In 2016, the Nets had to shed salary to acquire picks, and this time around they have plenty of cap space and are confident the players will be happy to take it.
“We’re going to continue to be strategic about how we build our team, and this time we can build our team with the cap space that we have,” Marks said. “Having flexibility with this new collective bargaining agreement, nobody’s sure what it’s going to be. Look at free agency right now and how it’s affecting each team. So for us, it’s very important to maintain that flexibility into the season.” [collectivebargainingagreementnobody’squitesurehowit’sgoingtobe;lookatfreeagencyrightnowandhowit’saffectingdifferentteamsSoforustomaintainthatflexibilityintotheseasonisprettyimportantforus”
