Did the Nets make a mistake by not trading for their picks back?
While the Brooklyn Nets are coming off a disappointing 2023-24 season in which they went from potential playoff participants to missing the playoffs completely. One of the main themes from this season for Brooklyn was the fact that they had plenty of opportunities of change their team for the future, but decided to stand pat.
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle recently reported that the Nets declined the offer from the Houston Rockets to essentially swap draft picks during this season’s trade deadline. As Feigen wrote, the Rockets offered to trade Brooklyn’s picks (2024, 2026, and pick swaps in 2025 and 2027) in exchanged for the Phoenix Suns’ picks (2025, 2027, and 2029).
With this report, it seems that the Nets value Phoenix’s picks more than getting their own picks back given where the Suns are right now. In addition to this situation, Houston also offered to give Brooklyn most of their own picks back, per multiple reports, in exchange for Mikal Bridges, an offer the Nets also declined.
More to the point, the Rockets wanted Bridges enough that they were willing to include guard Jalen Green, per reports on the situation at the time. To be clear, it wasn’t reported how Houston including Green in the trade negotiations would affect how many of Brooklyn’s draft picks they would be giving up, but that shows how interested the Rockets were to get a deal done.
The Nets’ decision to decline all known offers for Bridges has been criticized by some as overvaluing while also not taking the chance to have get back to recoup their future. However, some can also argue that the Suns’ draft picks could prove to be more valuable either as draft capital or in a potential trade for a star than Brooklyn getting their own picks back.
At the moment, the Nets do not have their picks so selling off their better players would not benefit them much in the short-term. However, Brooklyn will start getting draft picks as soon as 2025 and the Nets change their mind down the line to get back their assets if their picks were to change hands.
