As one NBA source told NetsDaily the beauty of the Nets’ situation is that they can move in any direction.
Add another category to the Brooklyn Nets list of “mosts” — most tradeable first round picks. According to a RealGM survey published Friday, Brooklyn currently has access to 10 first rounders that can be traded, nearly twice as many as the next team, the Utah Jazz, who have six. They also have than two, three and even four times more than every other NBA team besides the Jazz.
Picks’ availability for are determined by a number of factors including the Stepien Rule that prohibits teams from trading their own firsts in consecutive years with some exceptions.
Indeed, of the NBA’s 30 teams, 18 have three or fewer tradeable first round picks. Four teams — the Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and New York Knicks — have no tradeable firsts. In general, as you’d expect, rebuilding teams like the Nets and Jazz, have the most first rounders available while contenders have the fewest.
As has been widely reported, Nets have the most picks in the NBA overall with 15 first rounders plus three first round swaps and 16 second rounders through 2031. They also have the most picks (5) and most first round picks (4) in the 2025 Draft and are expected to have a near-monopoly in salary cap space in this summer’s free agency with estimates of as much as $60 or $70 million available.
As one NBA source has told NetsDaily, “the beauty of the Nets situation is that they can move in any direction.”
Tradeable picks — firsts and seconds, combined with cap space, can be ideal in trading for stars or superstars under contract elsewhere. In the 2021 trade for James Harden, Brooklyn sent out three first rounders and four first round swaps. The Nets received five first rounders, a first round swap and a second rouner from the Knicks last July in return for Mikal Bridges.
Cap space can also be used to take on players in salary dumps and get additional picks as compensation. And by being under the cap, the Nets will have access to the MLE which under the new CBA can be used like a trade exception to acquire players. (The Nets also have access to the league’s second largest trade exception at $23.3 million which expires July 7.)
Real GM broke down the tradeable first rounders in in several ways: first rounders that can be traded outright unencumbered by protections or swaps: picks with protections that can be traded; and pick swaps that can be traded. They also listed picks tradeable before and after the 2025 NBA Draft on June 25-26.
As noted, Sean Marks & co. have 10 picks outright; plus they control three swaps that can be traded and two protected picks that can also be traded for a total of 15, RealGM reported. The Jazz, No. 2 in the RealGM rankings, have a total of 11. A number of teams have eight.
The Nets also lead in first round picks that can traded after the NBA Draft (barring trades) with eight outright plus three swaps and one protected. The Jazz will again be second with six outright plus three swaps and an unprotected pick.
Brooklyn also has 16 second round picks, all of which can be dealt. Between the 2024 and 2025 trade deadlines, the Nets added 10 second rounders, acquiring three each in trades for Royce O’Neale, Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith while adding another in the Ziaire Williams salary dump with the Memphis Grizzlies.
