The Brooklyn Nets have been heavily criticized after their selections in the 2025 NBA Draft, and the criticism hasn’t stopped. On a recent episode of a popular NBA podcast, one analyst didn’t hold back, eviscerating Brooklyn’s offseason approach. From the questionable draft picks to constant misses in free agency, the analyst pointed out a pattern of moves that has people scratching their heads at the Nets’ decision-making.
Bill Simmons Says Nets Have One of the Bleakest Outlooks in the East
During an episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons and Ryen Russillo ranked the teams with the worst outlook over the next five years. Brooklyn claimed the No. 2 spot on their list, which Nets fans won’t want to hear.
Simmons said, “I continue to think they did an awful job like really bad. I didn’t like their draft.. The Nets were the guy in the fantasy draft that had $100 dollars to spend & everybody else ran out of money, they were in the drivers seat & failed to exploit.”
Bill Simmons on the Brooklyn Nets:
“I continue to think they did an awful job like really bad. I didn’t like their draft.. The Nets were the guy in the fantasy draft that had $100 dollars to spend & everybody else ran out of money, they were in the drivers seat & failed to… pic.twitter.com/Nf8B4vFl4A
— NetsKingdom 👑🗽 (@NetsKingdomAJ) July 7, 2025
The Nets came into June’s NBA Draft loaded with five first-round picks. They selected: Egor Demin (No. 8), Nolan Traore (No. 19), Drake Powell (No. 22), Ben Saraf (No. 26), and Danny Wolf (No. 27). While it remains to be seen how these players will pan out, many other analysts gave similar sentiments when discussing Brooklyn’s selections.
During the free-agency portion of the offseason, which we’re in right now, the Nets then made a blockbuster trade, sending one of their best assets in Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick.
Similarly to the bad draft picks, Simmons doesn’t like the Nets’ tanking strategy, citing the new Draft lottery rules as a harder road to success, which has Brooklyn in “no man’s land.”
“You’ll get the fifth pick in the draft. At some point, I’d rather have some combination of young building blocks and I’m going to be bad anyway because there’s so many good teams in the league or as much cap space as you can. They’re in No Man’s Land”, Simmons emphasized.
Russillo then notes that multiple GMs were reported to be laughing at the Nets for their draft picks.
“The problem is they are coming off using five first-round draft picks, and there were a lot of teams that were like, ‘if you get five first-round draft picks in this range, you would’ve never thought you’d come up with those five players,’ but who knows. Windhorst was even saying … for Windhorst to share that other GMs were laughing during the night at what the Nets were doing.”
Russillo refers to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst saying on an alternate ESPN broadcast on draft night, “I got some people telling me some things about Brooklyn. People are making fun of these draft rooms.”
While no one can predict the future, if everything unfolds the way the Nets’ front office envisions, those who mocked their process may eventually have to eat their words. However, as things stand now, that outcome feels like a long shot — especially with so many teams in the Eastern Conference continuing to improve.
