Nets Viewed as Team Most Likely to Make a Draft Day Trade

As the team with the most first-round draft picks and the most projected cap space ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the Brooklyn Nets make a move on/ahead of draft day.

According to Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes, the Nets are the team that is most likely to make a draft night trade. 

“Depending on what Brooklyn does with its own free-agent cap holds and qualifying offers, it will have somewhere between $40 and $80 million in room below the cap. That'd be a powerful trade tool in any offseason,” said Hughes. “In this one, where nobody else comes anywhere close to that level of financial flexibility, it's like a combination of a magic wand, a skeleton key and the Infinity Gauntlet.”

Currently holding the 8th, 19th, 26th and 27th picks in the first round of this draft, Brooklyn’s front office could go in many different directions on draft day. With intriguing guards like Dylan Harper and Jeremiah Fears expected to be picked ahead of No.8, Brooklyn could possibly package a few picks together to move up a few spots.

Another option would include holding on to the No.8 pick, and using the rest of their first-round picks to try and trade into a later spot in the lottery, which would make them the only team with two lottery picks. While projected No.1 pick Cooper Flagg is viewed as the "prize" of this draft, it's considered a deep class, and the Nets could land two immediate contributors late in the lottery."

According to Hughes, the Nets could also serve as a third-party for a team that is looking to facilitate a trade, using their abundance of cap room to possibly take on an unwanted contract in exchange for even more picks.

“The Nets are all-powerful facilitators, capable of taking on unwanted cash (with picks attached, of course) in order to grease the skids for other teams' exchanges,” Hughes said. “The Nets profile as a team that could easily trade up in the draft while awaiting desperate calls for help from squads that can't transact without a willing third party.”