Nets finish sixth-worst in NBA with Cooper Flagg lottery odds, draft haul prefacing rebuild
The Nets’ 113-105 loss to the Knicks mercifully put an end to their regular season.Next comes the bigger stakes: the NBA draft lottery.In front of team owner Joe Tsai, the Nets finished with the league’s sixth-worst record (26-56) — and thus the sixth-best odds in the lottery that will be the foundation of their rebuild.Yes, the Nets have hoarded the most cap space in the NBA, but they also have a league-high 31 future draft picks, and five of them will come in this year’s generational class.They’ll have four in just the first round on June 25 at Barclays Center, including their own natural pick.That’s why, despite everything the Nets slogged through this season — leading the league in games lost to injury, cycling through a team-record 27 players under contract — it was really only Year Zero of this rebuild.
Next season will be Year One, with those yet-to-be-drafted rookies as the building blocks.“As a fan base, you want to say, ‘I remember when they drafted this guy; I’ve seen the development course of such-and-such player,’” Nets general manager Sean Marks told YES Network before Sunday’s finale.Marks is going to be the man responsible for picking those players, as well as the grand plan.If the Nets don’t accelerate the rebuild by trading for a superstar, they could flip solid veterans such as Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton for lesser players that won’t hurt a 2025-26 tank but come attached with even more draft picks.The Nets at least helped themselves somewhat in the draft Sunday.
The lottery won’t be until May 12, and they’ll have a nine percent shot at winning the right to select Duke forward Cooper Flagg and 37.2 percent odds at landing somewhere in the top four.Their natural pick has better than even odds at being seventh (29.8 percent) or eighth (20.6 percent).They also hold the natural picks of the Bucks, Knicks and Rockets.Their Milwaukee pick is in a three-way tie for 18th with Washington (from Memphis) and Miami (from...