How the Nets plan to navigate a historic draft experiment during a challenging season

Wednesday marks the beginning of a new one Brooklyn Nets era and the boldest NBA draft experiment in recent memory. After years of star hunting and quick fixes, The Nets are seemingly committed to building organically this offseason, making an NBA record five first-round picks.

The Brooklyn draft was a joke. Reporters mocked the loud celebrations in the front office war room, while agents and executives laughed at the team’s hard-to-pick strategy. However, for a Nets franchise bereft of young talent for most of its era in Brooklyn, the 2025 draft presented a unique opportunity.

“Look, I think this is a big problem,” the CEO Sean Marks said in June. “We’ve been particularly short on picks over the last nine years that I’ve been here, so it’s exciting. It’s an exciting time. We have a great group of scouts, and obviously the draft was led by (assistant GM) BJ Johnson. To add a group like this at this particular time for us? Why can’t we add a lot of talent for us?

Much of the skepticism surrounding the Nets’ draft centered on the skill overlap of their picks. Brooklyn selected three international point guards — Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf — and one big man — Danny Woof — who served as Michigan’s primary ball-handler. All four prospects struggled as scorers last season and are used to having the ball in their hands.

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However, the Nets are confident that their rookies are more capable scorers than they have shown. And in an NBA that embraces positionless basketball more than ever before, they put a premium on ball handling and shot creation.

“It’s important to have a primary ball handler and then guys who can play pick-and-rolls on the other end and make decisions. We have a group of young guys that have a really high IQ, and they’re really good playmakers. Put that with positional size, and they’re all good shooters,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said in July. “All those touches in the paint and turning the ball over, it just helps when you have not only primary ball handlers, but secondary ball handlers, and all these guys can do that. So it’s all positive. There’s no negative here.”

As the league gets deeper and more skilled offensively, defensive versatility is non-negotiable. Tune in to any playoff game and you’ll see offenses mercilessly hunting down small guards when they get the chance. The Nets hope their prospects can eliminate those advantages for the opposition.

Brooklyn Beginners they have an average size at 6-foot-6 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan. The team also selected North Carolina wing Drake Powell, who is 6-foot-6 with a seven-foot wingspan and is considered the best athlete in this year’s class.

“When it comes to defense, position size is very important. Guys, you can see here with your eye test, I’d play these guys almost one-on-four, one-on-five,” Fernandez continued. “So that’s a good thing for us. You’re going to see length and athleticism, and we’re going to continue to work on physicality and communication … (We’re going to) give multiple efforts. Those are things we have to be on the same page with, and that’s my job as a head coach.”

While the Nets are confident in their vision, the NBA community still doubts their ability to develop five starters at once. There’s a reason teams typically don’t draft more than two prospects in a class. Young players need reps and minutes to develop. Finding them in a team with five rookies and numerous veterans will be a difficult task.

How will Fernandez pull it off?

“That’s a good question. I’ll focus on the team and what we’re trying to build as a group,” the coach said. “They’re going to have to earn it. I think that’s the way it should be. They’re going to put in the work. They’ve already shown who they are. That’s why we hired them… My decision is going to be to go and put five guys on the field and, most likely, have a ten-man rotation and go through the process. I think it’s definitely up to me.

“We’ll go through the process. We have to use all our resources, the G League, if necessary,” he added during training camp. “All of our resources are NBA minutes, Long Island minutes, all the development with the coaches. That goes for all five starters. And I think, following the right steps, we believe each of them will find NBA minutes at some point. They just have to be ready.”

With The Nets are mired in another tanking campaigna few veteran trades could be on the horizon. The departure of established players would not only increase Brooklyn’s lottery odds, but also open up minutes for its rookies.

It’s been sixteen months since the Nets threw themselves into a rebuild by trading away Michal Bridges and re-acquiring their 2025 and 2026 picks. Fans will see the early payoff for those moves for the first time when Brooklyn opens the regular season on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets.

“For all the young guys, even though you tell them things, they’re going to have to experience it,” Fernandez said Tuesday. “So just go through it. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Learn how to deal with adversity and learn how to deal with success. If you can do that, it’s going to work. Opportunities will come. Some of them are going to play right away, some of them are going to have to wait a little bit to play. But that’s part of the NBA. We’re going to end up playing a lot of the draft, guys, and it tells you a lot about what we’re trying to do here.”