The Brooklyn Nets were rumored to be setting themselves up for a big move ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft after they acquired a fifth first-round pick prior to Wednesday. Brooklyn did not operate as anticipated as they kept and used all five of their first-round picks and it seems like the Nets are continuing the trend of going against what the expectations are.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Thursday, hours before the second round of the Draft, that the Nets traded the 36th overall pick to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for two future second-round picks, giving Phoenix three picks in the round. HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto later added that the picks Brooklyn was receiving from the Suns were a 2026 second-round pick depending on favorability and a 2030 second-round pick from the Boston Celtics.
While this move isn’t nearly as surprising as what the Nets did during Wednesday’s first round, Brooklyn did finally manage to take one of their picks and get more than one future pick as a result. The 2026 pick could be anywhere in the second round while the 2030 pick from Boston could turn out to be valuable depending on where the franchise is five years from now.
In the first round, the Nets drafted BYU guard Egor Demin, French guard Nolan Traore, UNC forward Drake Powell, Israeli guard Ben Saraf, and Michigan forward Danny Wolf within the top-27 of the Draft. The most surprising pick of the bunch was Brooklyn taking Demin, not because of his future projections, but because the Nets took him with the eighth overall pick when he was expected to go later in the Draft.
Either way, Brooklyn added five players to a team that will most likely challenge for the youngest team in the league and developing all of those players at the same time will be a tall task. By trading away their second-round pick, it seems like the Nets did not want to add a sixth player into the fray and as a result, they have an extra second-round pick to play around with in the future.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets trade No. 36 pick in 2025 NBA Draft to Suns for 2 2nd-round picks
Reporting by Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire / Nets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
