Pick swaps, not picks
As long as the Houston Rockets are terrible, the Nets can hope to keep their own picks, at least in 2023 and 2025. 2027 is so far away in NBA timelines as it is almost pointless to plan around.
The trade that brought James Harden to Brooklyn didn’t work out, and the picks owed straight up in 2024 and 2026 might be good, but at least this year’s pick could be a good one – if the Nets realize it’s well past time to their losses and are sellers before the trade deadline.
No pick is guaranteed to land a franchise building block, but the Nets under Sean Marks previously managed to build a fun, upwardly mobile playoff team with D’Angelo Russell as the only lottery pick on its roster.