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The Brooklyn Nets had a historic 2025 NBA Draft. They made five first-round picks.
The problem is that in the 2026 edition, with a loaded draft class, the player type the Nets have been going after could create some serious overlap.
A year ago, the Nets took:
- Egor Demin (8)
- Nolan Traore (19)
- Drake Powell (22)
- Ben Saraf (26)
- Danny Wolf (27)
While not exclusively ball handlers, there's a lot of backcourt presence on that list.
This year, the Nets have earned the No. 6 pick via the lottery, and that's smack dab in the middle of guard central in this draft class.
The general expectation is that the top-four picks in some order will be AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson.
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That leaves behind them a crop of five talented point guards: Darius Acuff, Kingston Flemings, Keaton Wagler, Mikel Brown Jr. and Brayden Burries.
The Nets really don't need another ball handler, though, so will they have to get a little creative?
"The Nets will be focused on taking the best player available on their board, regardless of position -- which is partly how they wound up with so many ballhandling guards in the 2025 draft," ESPN's Tim Bontemps wrote in a new article after the lottery.
The most likely bigger guy to stretch into this area of the draft is probably Tennessee's long but skinny wing, Nate Ament.
Brooklyn could also explore trade possibilities here, or just keep picking guards until they find the best ones.
It just was never going to be easy to follow up a five-player first round, because those are all players the Nets have to keep believing in while also figuring out who the talented new guy should be.
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