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The Brooklyn Nets ended the 2024-25 NBA season with a 26-56 record and while that was the sixth-worst mark in the league, the Nets had a successful season in certain regards. Brooklyn entered the season projected to be one of the worst teams in the league and while they finished the season that way, it didn’t look like that in the beginning as they were winning more games than expected.
Through the first two months of the season, the Nets were 9-11, putting them on pace to finish the season slightly under .500 with a chance to make the playoffs given how much parity resides in the Eastern Conference. Much of the reason for Brooklyn playing that well was due to players like Cam Thomas, Dennis Schroder, and Cam Johnson leading the way in terms of scoring and facilitating.
Schroder was the catalyst in particular due to how well he was playing to begin the season as he averaged 18.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 6.4 assists per game while shooting 44.1% from the field and 40.5% from three-point land. In what could be interpreted as general manager Sean Marks and company trying to preserve the chances of the team getting the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, Schroder was traded to the Golden State Warriors at the earliest chance the team could on Dec. 15.
December was the month where the season turned for the Nets in the positive direction with regards to the team recommitting to the rebuild as Brooklyn finished the month with a 3-9 record. To further ensure that the Nets would not be too competitive moving forward, Marks traded Dorian Finney-Smith to the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 29 in exchange for D’Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis, both players having some good moments with the team this season.
From January on, Brooklyn did not finish with a winning record except in February when the team finished with a 6-5 record, but played just 11 games due to the All-Star Game being played within the month. With Thomas playing just 25 games during the season, Brooklyn was without its leading scorer for the majority of the season and that played into the Nets losing more games while also being able to give players like Keon Johnson more playing time as well.
Along the way, the Nets were able to evaluate some of the younger talent on the team while also seeing players like Johnson, Thomas, and Trendon Watford have career-years due to the coaching of rookie head coach Jordi Fernandez. In a season where player development and evaluation was the key, Brooklyn did not meet those standards in certain regards with players like Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead not showing much improvement.
Ultimately, the season was a successful one for the Nets as they know that they have a good head coach in Fernandez while seeing some players have some of the best years of their career. However, there aren’t many players that the team aren’t sure of heading into the future and with four first-round picks and the most projected cap space in the league, Brooklyn could look significantly different next season.
Grade: B
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