Brooklyn’s NBA Draft position is nearly finalized.
The Nets secured the 19th pick in June’s draft on Monday after a three-way tiebreaker at NBA headquarters last week. Originally owned by the Milwaukee Bucks, the pick was acquired in last summer’s Mikal Bridges trade with the Knicks.
The Washington Wizards and Miami Heat received picks No. 18 and No. 20, respectively, after the tiebreaker.
Brooklyn holds the sixth-best odds for the No. 1 overall pick and owns two additional first-round picks: No. 26 (via Knicks) and No. 27 (via Houston). The NBA Draft lottery is set for May 12 in Chicago.
PLAYER POLL
The Nets didn’t receive much love in The Athletics’ 2025 anonymous NBA player poll. Then again, that much was expected after a 26-56 season. For context, the poll surveyed 158 players across all 30 NBA teams, but not all players answering every question.
Cam Johnson, who averaged a career-best 18.8 points per game last season while shooting 47.5% from the field and 39% from 3-point range, received votes for the most underrated player in the league. Of the 136 players who voted on this question, 75 received at least one vote.
Jordi Fernandez received 2.7%% of votes for the worst head coach in the NBA, tied for ninth with former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone. Coaches from lottery teams were primarily listed on the poll, with Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers and the Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau being the exceptions. Washington’s Brian Keefe topped the list with 24.7% of votes.
For what it’s worth, the Nets did receive 0.7% of votes for being the best organization in the league. Unsurprisingly, the Golden State Warriors took the top spot with 21.9% of votes, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
KUMINGA TO BROOKLYN?
The Warriors and Jonathan Kuminga have appeared to be heading toward a divorce for a while now. The 2021 lottery pick has improved in each of his first four seasons in the NBA, fell out of Steve Kerr’s rotation toward the end of the regular season and could be on the move as a restricted free agent this summer.
Kuminga, 22, averaged 15.3 points on 45.4% shooting, with 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 24.3 minutes this season. According to NBA contributor Marc Stein, the rebuilding Nets — and their vast amounts of cap space — could be a team interested in taking a flier on the high-flying forward.
“The Nets, at present, are projected to be the only team with $40 million in salary cap space this summer, theoretically positioning them to mount a firm Kuminga pursuit if they wish,” Stein wrote in his latest Substack post. “That lack of abundant cap space has led various team strategists this week to suggest that a sign-and-trade could be the ultimate mechanism that delivers the former No. 7 pick out of the Bay Area come July.”
