In the war room where it happens, on the eighth floor of HSS Training Center in Sunset Park, this is crunchtime, and not just for the Draft. Historically, Sean Marks makes most of his trades right around the Draft, not the trade deadline in February … that is, if you don’t count the superstar distress sales sending James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kyrie Irving elsewhere.
So, we have now entered, once again, the “Sean Marks Trade Zone,” the 48-hour window on either side of the Draft when in the past, a lot of has happened in that room. Before Monday night, nine years out the 10 he’s been GM, Marks has made at least one move in said zone: a trade, a signing, etc. Then shortly after 10 p.m. Monday, ET, he did it again. Why is the Draft so popular? Unlike the trade deadline, everyone and everything is available. And there’s a deadline.
Some were small, but a few not so small, like trading the franchise’s leading scorer, Brook Lopez, and the 27th pick, for D’Angelo Russell in 2017, or the 2024 combo of the Mikal Bridges trade with New York, after a 43-year hiatus, and the exchange of picks with the Rockets.
Here’s the record.
2016
On the morning of the Draft, the Nets traded Thaddeus Young to the Pacers for the rights to Caris LeVert and a future second, which became Kessler Edwards in 2021 Draft. Young’s wife at first said she couldn’t believe it, having liked her time in Brooklyn, but then noted it was Woj who broke it.
2017
The Tuesday afternoon before the Thursday night draft, the Nets traded Brook Lopez and the rights to the 27th pick, Kyle Kuzma, to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov. An extremely unpopular move at the time. Lopez had broken the Nets all-time scoring record on the last night of the season, but the Nets saw the move as “transformative.” D’Lo at the time was 21 years old and a former No. 2 overall pick.
2018
Nets traded Mozgov, two future second rounders and $5 million in cash to the Hornets for Dwight Howard who they waived. At first, it looked like the trade would finally end the “Dwightmare” that had consumed fans and the organization since 2012 when at the last minute the All-NBA center opted out of a trade that would have brought him to New Jersey. Nets saved $17 million in the deal.
2019
On Draft Night, the Nets traded the rights to Mfiondu Kabengele to the Clippers for a first rounder in 2020 and the rights to Jaylen Hands, a salary dump to prepare for the Clean Sweep and the need for cap space to pay KD, Kyrie and D.J. (A couple of weeks earlier, they had traded Allen Crabbe and two firsts, including the 17th pick in 2019, which turned into Nickeil Alexander-Walker, for Taurean Prince and a future second which turned into Marcus Zegarowski. Prince was a good friend of Durant’s.)
2020
The Nets, Pistons and Clippers did a three-team deal broken into two components, one two days before the Draft, the other during the second round on Draft Night. The Nets sent out Dzanan Musa, the rights to Hands, a future second, the rights to Saddiq Bey, getting Bruce Brown, Shamet and the rights to Reggie Perry in return.
2021
Two hours before the Draft, the Nets traded Landry Shamet to the Clippers for Jevon Carter and the 29th pick, giving the Nets two picks late in the first round. The pick was more important than Carter because without it, the Nets would have had to choose between Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe. Instead, they were able to draft both … and the rest, as they say, is history.
2022
The Nets had no picks but the ringer on the mobile phones were set at the highest volume. Brooklyn had no picks in the Draft. There was talk that another team had offered a first rounder for Cam Thomas but the Nets declined. Of course, the big news of the week was the report that Kyrie Irving had given the Nets a list of five teams he’d prefer if he and the Nets couldn’t reach an agreement on an extension. Nothing evolved … then.
2023
This one came a couple of days after the Draft: Cam Johnson, acquired in the February 9 trade that had sent Kevin Durant to Phoenix, agreed to a four-year, $108 million deal, higher than most pundits had expected but more than enough to scare away the competition. A few days later, Marks dispatched Joe Harris and Patty Mills along with three second rounders and big trade exceptions.
2024
It looked like a boring Draft Night. The Brooklyn Nets had no picks in either round of what looked like the worst selection in a quarter century. It was. Then, all of a sudden, things changed… big time. The Nets made two ginormous trades, one with the Knicks that sent Mikal Bridges across the East River to the Knicks, returning five first round picks, a first round swap and a second rounder, and a pick exchange with the Rockets in which the Nets got their 2025 and 2026 first rounders back and the Rockets both picks and swaps. The two were for all intents and purposes, one big deal that saw 10 picks and swaps change hands. It changed the trajectory of the franchise for years.
2025
The night before the Draft, in their first big salary dump of the off-season, the Nets facilitated a deal between the Celtics and the Hawks, the biggest piece being Kristaps Porzingis, and was rewarded with the 22nd pick the next night. The pick became Drake Powell; the cost $1.1 million in cash. The team also acquired Terance Mann and his $47 million, three-year deal. Then between the first and second nights of the Draft, the Nets traded their own second round pick, re-acquired in the Bridges trade, to the Suns for two future seconds, the first of which will be the Nets 43rd pick in Tuesday’s draft. The was later folded into the seven-team trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Rockets.
In 2026? We’ve already seen the three-team trade that will bring Julius Randle to Brooklyn and send Nic Claxton to Chicago. Should we expect more? Of course.