Who Is The Most Indispensable Brooklyn Net Next Season?

Which player on the Brooklyn Nets roster would be the hardest to replace if they miss time? That's a question that would receive a different answer depending on who you ask.

The Nets don't have a superstar player like Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or Luka Doncic, which makes the question easy. There's good players on the roster, but no top end of the league talent. To answer this question, you have to dig a little deeper into the roster Sean Marks has assembled.

Most fans would say Michael Porter Jr. or Julius Randle would be the hardest to replace. They're both veterans who know how to score the rock fairly efficiently. Others may say one of the young guards, like Egor Demin or Mikel Brown Jr. Given the performance of the other guards in the Summer League, those two are very important this season.

But the answer to the question lies elsewhere in the starting lineup, at a position where the Nets lost some depth this offseason.

Who Is The Most Indispensable Net?

Day'Ron Sharpe is the most indispensable player on the Nets roster this season. The former North Carolina big man is taking on a brand new role after the trade of Nic Claxton. He'll be moving into the starting lineup to man the middle. And he's going to be asked to do a lot for head coach Jordi Fernandez.

Porter and Randle have shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball. Sharpe will be asked to mask some of those deficiencies by providing strong rim defense. He's shown an ability to do that in spurts off the bench. He'll need to do it more consistently across longer stretches of time to help the Nets improve defensively.

For those reasons alone, there's a great argument to make for Sharpe here. But it's the depth, or lack of it, behind him that makes him the obvious answer. With Claxton gone and Sharpe starting, the Nets don't have a lot of quality big men on the roster.

Mo Wagner was signed in free agency, but isn't a traditional center despite his 6-foot-11 stature. Danny Wolf is also 6-foot-11, but plays more like a stretch four than anything else. And Joshua Jefferson, Josh Minott, and Chaney Johnson would all be playing way undersized if Fernandez threw them at center.

If Sharpe goes down for any time at all this season, the Nets are going to be in big trouble. They'll lose all of their rim protection and a lot of rebounding at the same time. Opposing teams would be able to take advantage and bully Brooklyn in the paint to gain the upper hand.

Sharpe is no superstar in the league. But on the Nets in 2026-27, he's the player they can least afford to lose.