Another week, another salary dump, another roster slot filled. It’s one or the other, sometimes both.
This week, it was a trade for another solid if not spectacular NBA wing: Haywood Highsmith, a 6’5” 3-and-D wing and another second rounder. In return for the 28-year-old, the Brooklyn Nets gave up basically nothing: a heavily protected second next year. For the pick to transfer, the Nets would have to finish with a top five record in 2025-26. That’s not happening and if it somehow did, who would care about a second rounder? The rebuild would be over; the Nets 2025 picks having succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.
Sean Marks and company have now participated in three salary dumps: giving up a net of $41.7 million in cap space, Cam Johnson, $1.1 million in cash considerations and that heavily protected second in 2026 to acquire Michael Porter Jr., Drake Powell, (the 22nd pick in June’s draft,) the Nuggets unprotected first in 2032 and the Heat’s unprotected second in that same draft. And they still have anywhere between $16 and $22 million remaining cap space, depending on how many their five team options they exercise … and what happens with Cam Thomas.
We expect to see some movement on all that and Exhibit 10s in the next couple of weeks, the Exhibit 10s even earlier. The roster math and league rules will dictage it. With the addition of Highsmith, the Nets now have 22 players — one more than the max allowed in training camp.
Once again, the roster math:
—11 players on guaranteed standard deals: Michael Porter Jr., Nic Claxton, Terance Mann, Egor Demin, Haywood Highsmith, Nolan Traore, Noah Clowney, Drake Powell, Dariq Whitehead, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf,
—five players on non- or partially guaranteed deals: Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Tyrese Martin, Drew Timme and Ricky Council IV whose signing has yet to be announced. Johnson, Wilson and Council all have partial guarantees.
—three unsigned restricted free agents: Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams, the latter two having agreed to deals that have yet to be finalized
—two two-ways: Tosan Evbuomwan and Tyson Etienne. Two-way contracts are not guaranteed so they’re most likely holding spots rather than certainties. The Nets also have a third two-way still open.
Brooklyn can also sign players to training camp deals, Exhibit 9s and 10’s, which can be converted into two-way spots or G League contracts. In order to do that, though, they’ll have to waive someone to get down to 21 by the opening of camp, presumable the end of September, presumably from the quintet of players on team options or the two two-ways. Both Fanbo Zeng and Grant Nelson, athletic 6’11” forwards, are seem the most likely to get the call, based on media reports, with Zeng the more likely of the two. They could also sign a free agent, of course, perhaps a veteran point guard? Like we’ve said all summer, flexibility.
There’s also the issue of getting to the salary floor, the minimum under the CBA. At the moment, they are $7.3 million under. They have until October 21 to get to that level or face some monetary sanctions.
As for Thomas, there appears nothing much new. The reporting, always sketchy, seems to suggest that the team will get serious with him once they feel they’re exhausted their opportunities with cap space. After the Highsmith trade, they appear to be close that. And again, the Nets can sign Thomas out of Bird Rights. However, by all accounts, the two sides are far apart and he can exercise his qualifying offer up to October 1 (or even beyond although that’s not likely.
Beyond the roster math, the Highsmith acquisition raises another question: what are the Nets to do with all the small forwards they have on their roster? We have heard all the talk of position-less basketball and 0.5-second decision making, but at the moment, Brooklyn has a lot of players nominally listed at the 3.
There’s Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead, Drake Powell, Haywood Highsmith, Tosan Evboumwan, Tyrese Martin, Terance Mann, Jalen Wilson and even Fanbo Zeng. Miss anyone? Of course, there’s going to be experimentation, like running Egor Demin at the 3 in Summer league or having Ben Sarah play the 1, 2 or 3. And Highsmith may not be ready until a month into the season.
Training camp will be interesting.
Draft Haul Grows
In his tweet breaking the Haywood Highsmith news, Shams Charania noted this…
Brooklyn has remained active in trade conversations as the league’s only team with remaining significant cap space, and takes Highsmith in with an unprotected second-rounder. Nets have also acquired two 1sts this offseason to add to the most 1st and 2nd round picks in the league.
By our count, the Nets currently have 13 first rounders and 18 seconds for a total of 31, the same number it had going into the 2025 Draft, even with using five firsts. The haul is indeed caveated with swaps particularly in the second round, but here’s the list:
First the firsts…
—2026 (1)
Nets
—2027 (2)
Nets (Rockets have swap rights) Knicks,
—2028 (2)
Nets (best of Nets/Suns/Knicks), 76ers (top 8 protected)
—2029 (3)
Nets, Knicks, and worst of Mavs/Suns/Rockets
—2030 (1)
Nets
—2031 (2)
Nets, Knicks
—2032 (2)
Nets, Nuggets
And the seconds
—2026 (2) - least favorable of Clippers/Celtics and most favorable of Celtics/Pacers/Grizzlies and Hawks
—2027 (1) - Lakers
—2028 (3) - Nets. Hawks, Grizzlies, Mavs
—2029 (4) - Grizzlies, Mavs, Warriors
—2030 (4) - Nets, Celtics, Mavs, Lakers
—2031 (2) - Mavs, Lakers
—2032 (2) - Nets, Heat
There are a number of caveats we didn’t detail, but the numbers speak loudly. The big question besides quantity is quality and the Nets seen to be in good shape there as well. As Brian Lewis wrote recently:
CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn ranked all 63 traded picks in the NBA, and Brooklyn holds two of the top 10 — with a third, even more valuable, omitted merely through a technicality.
By far Brooklyn’s best asset is their own natural first-round pick next year, which they reacquired from Houston via trade. Since it had originally been their own pick, Quinn didn’t include it in his list. But if he had, it would have been right near the top of the most coveted in the league, behind only the selection New Orleans shockingly traded to Atlanta.
“Probably second, to be honest,” Quinn told The Post. “The [2026] Pelicans pick, just by virtue of the attached swap rights with Milwaukee and being in the West rather than the East, is probably slightly better. But obviously an unprotected pick from a very bad team in the upcoming draft is almost automatically going to rank very near the top. That sort of certainty is rare.”
What’s the value of all those seconds? Under the new CBA, first rounders became more valuable. Teams need to stay under various thresholds and aprons while still paying stars. The easiest solution is do well in the draft, pay the firsts according to the rookie salary scale. As shown this summer, teams, particularly those who see themselves as contenders, are now willing to buyout or stretch big contracts rather than give up draft assets in salary dumps. Also, multiple seconds can replace the value of a single first. The Nets got three seconds for Dorian Finney-Smith, Dennis Schroder and Royce O’Neal.
More numbers
Etienne Catalan, the NBA numerologist, supplied some news on Sunday morning. He tweeted that Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf are changing uniform numbers.
No word on why. We’re sure they’ll asked.
And Traore won’t be the only one wearing No. 88 in October when Nets play the Suns in Macao. Vince Carter will be there as well.
Vince Carter will be there for the NBA China games. Among the promotions: 10 lucky Chinese fans will get to meet and greet VC. The promotion appears to be sponsored by Taobao which is part of Alibaba.
It also should be noted that “8” is the Chinese lucky number.
Final Note
We’re closing on the training camp and the end of the off-season. It’s now only six weeks away!