Bridge’ builder
Marks moved on from star to quickly remake Nets, no trade request needed
Nets general manager Sean Marks insisted Mikal Bridges didn’t force Brooklyn’s rebuild by demanding a trade. But make no mistake, they’re in a full-on rebuild.
And he vows it won’t take long.
Marks projects confidence that — despite the Big 3 all demanding trades, and Bridges being moved — Brooklyn is still a draw.
“This is something that we’ll continue to be strategic on and let it play out. But this build, do I think it’s going to take time? We’ll be strategic in it. But I do think being in this market, with this amount of draft assets, we’ve done it before,” Marks said. “Not that it’s going to be expedited by any means, but I don’t think it’s a long process either.”
Rebuilds come in all shapes and sizes. And speeds.
The Pistons have had one winning season since 2007-08 — none since 2015-16 — and have been tanking for at least five years.
But Houston’s rebuild was fast, as was Indiana’s.
The Nets are hoping to follow Houston’s path rather than Detroit’s. After a 32-50 season — one in which they couldn’t land a star to pair with Bridges — they moved him.
“We could’ve kept waiting. There’s no shortage of players who want to play with Mikal,” Marks said. “But this, for us, leads to a very clear pathway and direction of how we’re going to build.”
Even if that meant trading with the rival Knicks.
“You have to look yourself in the mirror as an organization, and say, ‘What’s the best path for us moving forward here, and how do we do this and how do we have that sustainable success that we want?’ ” Marks said. “So when you’re able to [add] that amount of draft assets over the course of the last year, that’s going to help us in our trajectory long term.” That amount was a haul. Two months after hiring coach Jordi Fernandez and a day before re-signing free agent Nic Claxton — both of whom had been warned of this possibility, according to Marks — the Nets pivoted.
Brooklyn made a deal with Houston to regain control of their own 2025 and ’26 firstround picks. And in return for Bridges, they got the Knicks’ 2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031 first-rounders, a 2028 first-round swap, and a 2025 Bucks first. They even got their second-rounder back next year.
That means they could have six picks — and potentially five in the top 40 — in next June’s draft, regarded by experts as both deep and loaded.
“We’re always looking two, three, four years ahead to try to navigate a pathway and when we’re looking at this not holding our picks, honestly that would’ve been detrimental to those two draft classes,” Marks said. “So now we have quite a number of picks, and especially in ’25. We’ll see how we navigate that. But we’re excited about what the future holds.”
That future will be built on up to $80 million in cap space next summer, and the 16 first-round picks over the next seven years. Many came from the trade of Bridges, who Marks insisted never asked to leave.
“It’s been reported that Mikal wanted to leave or requested a trade. That could not be further from the truth,” Marks said. “That’s just not in Mikal’s character. That’s not who he is, and that definitely did not happen. He was told by me when I called him and let him know that we’re at the 2-yard line.”
The Nets got the Bridges trade across the goal line. But now they’re just starting the next drive, another rebuild.
Back in 2016, the Nets had to take salary dumps to get picks; this time they’ll have copious cap space — and are convinced players will gladly take it.
“We’ll be strategic in how we continue to build. This time we can build through the cap space that we’ll have,” Marks said. “Having flexibility moving into this new [collective bargaining agreement, nobody’s quite sure how it’s going to be; look at free agency right now and how it’s affecting different teams. So for us to maintain that flexibility into the season is pretty important for us.”