Nets Exec Says Drafting Five Rookies Was About Value: 'Excited for the Challenge'

No single frsnchise had ever made more than four first-round selections in a NBA Draft.

In late June, the Brooklyn Nets made five.

In addition to their own lottery pick, the Nets managed to secure four more choices, all of which resulted in a class including Egor Demin (8th overall), Nolan Traore (19th overall), Drake Powell (22nd overall), Ben Saraf (26th overall) and Danny Wolf (27th overall).

Drafting five rookies in the first round is not only unheard of, but it essentially locks a third of the team's roster up well before training camp begins—which could present some difficulty.

An anonymous Nets front office executive echoed this sentiment to Spotrac's Keith Smith during the NBA2K26 Summer League in Las Vegas.

“Kind of crazy, right? But the value to trade those picks against the players we could get just wasn’t there,” the front office executive said. “Now, we have to be very intentional this year. Being as young as we are is pretty fragile. But we’re excited for the challenge.”

Demin, Traore, Powell and Saraf are each 19 years old. Wolf is 21. They'll join a young core consisting of Noha Clowney and Dariq Whitehead (each 20 years old), as well as 23-year-olds Cam Thomas, Keon Johnson, Ziaire Williams, Day'Ron Sharpe and Reece Beekman.

Additionally, Drew Timme, Jalen Wilson and Tosan Evbuomwan are all 24.

So the executive was right: the lack of experience may very well present a challenge, which means the veteran leaders will have to be major factors in the locker room.

The responsibility will fall on Nic Claxton and Brooklyn's offseason additions, Michael Porter Jr. and Terance Mann, to help unify the squad heading into year two of the Nets' rebuild.

Luckily for the incoming rookies, many of the guys already rostered spent the 2024-25 campaign under head coach Jordi Fernandez, and one of the new faces, that being Porter, already has four years with Fernandez to lean on.

So yes, while getting everyone acclimated to the "Brooklyn way" may appear difficult, the Nets have plenty of pieces in place to help make the transition as seamless as possible.