Nets’ collection of first-round picks more valuable than ever

The NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement has changed the way teams do their business, making first-round draft picks more valuable than ever.

And the Nets have more than anybody else — both in next month’s draft and in the years going forward.

“When a perceived high-value class comes along — this is a great example — analytics tell a certain story to teams, and that is that there’s nothing like a high draft pick if you want to change your fortunes and rebuild your team,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on the “Numbers On The Board” podcast.

The Nets tanked this season in hopes of getting lucky in the May 12 lottery.

But that pick is just the first brick in the foundation, with plenty more to lay.

They also have picks Nos. 19, 26, 27 and 36, though they could trade one or more of those since developing five rookies simultaneously could be daunting.

Brooklyn has the most future picks (31) and first–rounders (15), whether it opts to make them or offer a horde to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

And the restrictive new CBA makes building superteams — like the Nets’ ill-fated Big 3 — almost impossible.

Cheap four-year contracts under team control have become all-important, and the Nets can assemble a bunch of them.

Brooklyn has just a nine percent chance of winning and landing Cooper Flagg.

But general manager Sean Marks has seen the analytics and knows quantity has a quality all its own.

Not only has no top seed ever won the lottery since the odds were flattened in 2019, but three times — 2019, 2023, and 2024 — two of the three teams with the best 14 percent odds of winning tumbled out of the top three altogether.

It has changed the old race to be the worst into merely a race to be bad.

“In some cases, you have fans saying to teams, ‘What are you doing? You don’t want to finish in the middle of the pack. You’re better off the worse.’ That used to never be the case in the old days,” Silver said. “But the fans are sophisticated, too, and they’re saying, ‘Look who’s coming in the draft. You’re better off finishing down the standings.’

“At least now with the draft lottery and the flattened odds, teams can demonstrate it’s still a true long shot.”

Hence the benefit of Brooklyn’s draft cache.

And because not all picks are created equal, ESPN did an analysis of the value of every team’s future stockpile going forward seven years.

Every team ranked in ESPN’s top 12 has at least some control over all seven of their natural first-rounders going forward, with the Nets second behind only Oklahoma City.

With or without Flagg come May 12, the Nets will hope over the next several years their quantity proves to be a quality all its own — and a valuable one.