The Brooklyn Nets are in the early stages of one of the most important offseason in recent franchise history as the Nets have to improve coming off a 20-62 record. Brooklyn still has plenty of young players on the roster to develop, along with whoever they take in the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft, but could they be in a position to add a veteran into the mix?
“An unrestricted free agent, he likely will have other suitors who value his scoring, although perhaps not as a starter,” John Hollinger wrote for The Athletic when discussing Atlanta Hawks guard CJ McCollum. While McCollum is older than every player on the Nets’ 2025-26 roster by at least five years, he showed in the playoffs that he can still get the job done with his scoring in Atlanta’s first-round playoff series loss to the New York Knicks.
“I canvassed a few execs on his likely value during my recent travels, and most seemed to think one or two years at slightly above the midlevel exception was a fair ballpark (i.e., two years and $35 million to $40 million),” Hollinger continued. “However, with tanking now verboten, a one-year balloon deal from a struggling cap-room team like the Chicago Bulls or Brooklyn Nets can’t be ruled out.”
McCollum finished the regular season with averages of 18.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 45.5% from the field and 37.5% from behind the three-point line. McCollum maintained his production in the postseason as he averaged 19.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per contest while shooting 46.5% from the floor and 30.3% from deep.
As Hollinger noted, McCollum could be looking for somewhere around $20 million per year as he nears the later stages of his career and Brooklyn could create about $45 million in cap space this summer. The Nets finished this season with the worst offensive rating in the league (30th out of 30) so an experienced scorer in McCollum could fix that to some degree around sharpshooting forward Michael Porter Jr.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Could the Nets pursue Hawks’ CJ McCollum in NBA free-agency?
Reporting by Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire / Nets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
