Draft position is all that matters in Brooklyn. Nets general manager Sean Marks, speaking freely with a reporter in a recent interview, made that abundantly clear.
“We’re going to have to be systematic with some of the decisions we make,” Marks said.” And they may not always be in line with winning the next game or putting the most talent out there.”
After a surprising 9-10 start under first-year head coach Jordi Fernandez, the Nets have gone 4-16 since and dropped their fifth straight game following Sunday’s 112-111 overtime loss to the Utah Jazz at Delta Center.
Dennis Schroder, Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton have been traded. Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson, D’Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons continue to miss extended stretches as the team has been overly cautions with any injury reported.
And the Nets could make additional moves ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline. No one is same, and Johnson, Thomas, Ben Simmons or Nic Claxton could be sent to new teams. All of it is in service of securing a Top 4 selection in the 2025 NBA Draft.
“I think, like we always do, we’re always going to be listening, we’re always going to be canvassing the league, and when there’s opportunities for us to build that that sort of fit our long term approach here and how we will build and, you know, again, acquiring draft assets and so forth is going to be important for us, but at the same time, it’s establishing a culture,” Marks said after Schroder was traded in December.
According to Tankathon’s latest projections, the Nets would pick at No. 6, No. 17, No. 26 and No. 27 if the season ended today. They have a 37.2% chance of landing a Top 4 pick and a 9.0% chance of securing the No. 1 overall pick.
Utah (10-28), Charlotte (8-28), Toronto (8-31), New Orleans (8-32) and Washington (6-31), have the five best lottery odds entering Monday’s games. Portland has the seventh-best lottery odds behind Brooklyn.
The Top 3 positions have a 52.1% chance at landing a Top 4 pick and a 14.0 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick.
“To be frank, you’ve still got to get a little lucky,” Marks said. “We all know that. The hot-button topic has always been the draft. We all know we’ve still got to get lucky. At the end of the day, the Ping-Pong balls are going to drop a certain way.”
The Nets and Jazz both had 11 active players for Sunday’s game because of injuries. Brooklyn visits Portland on Tuesday while Utah hosts Charlotte.