Thunder's rise back to NBA elite could offer rebuild blueprint for Nets

01/20/2025 11:44 AM

The Brooklyn Nets’ blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday was a reminder of where the team is and where it eventually hopes to be. Most importantly, the 127-101 throttling at Paycom Center illustrated that there is a reasonable blueprint to get there.

Three years ago, the Thunder were in the league’s basement. They’re now atop the NBA standings at 35-7 with their sights set on a championship.

"They’ve trusted the process," Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said of Oklahoma City’s success. "You can see they're a group that believes in what they do, and they trust what they do. And this is because, along a period of time, even if things go one way or the other and there's adversity, there's no second-guessing. There's just the willingness to work and get better and compete. And obviously, they are in a very good spot.

"We have to focus on our own process, and that's a good thing. Sustaining success takes the understanding of how things go, and when there is adversity is when it's most important. And that's right there when our guys have been very good, working hard to just be successful along the process. And we just started at this point, and we know we will be very good soon enough."

Brooklyn’s process could mirror Oklahoma City’s.

Thunder’s turnaround offers hope to Nets in year one of rebuild

The Thunder traded their top player, Paul George, to the Los Angeles Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a hoard of draft picks in 2019. The rebuilding squad won 22 games in 2020-21 and 24 in 2021-22. However, Gilgeous-Alexander showed early signs of stardom, and General Manager Sam Presti used a pair of lottery picks to draft Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams in 2022.

Gilgeous-Alexander has since raced to the front of the MVP conversation, with Holmgren and Williams developing into elite complementary pieces. Presti found other overlooked talents in Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins. He traded for an impact veteran in Alex Caruso and maintained his team’s cap health, allowing him to sign Isaiah Hartenstein to a hefty contract this summer.

The Nets are in a similar position after trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks for a stockpile of picks. While they did not receive a superstar like Gilgeous-Alexander in the deal, they now lead the NBA with 31 draft picks over the next seven years, including 15 first-round picks. They are also the only team projected to have significant cap space this summer, with upwards of $70 million available, depending on roster decisions.

Maintaining that flexibility has been General Manager Sean Marks’ top priority in year one of a rebuild.

“We’ll be strategic in how we continue to build,” the GM said after making the Bridges trade. “This time, we can build through the cap space that we’ll have, and also, it’s a new CBA. So I think that affects everybody a little differently, and I think having flexibility moving into this new CBA, nobody’s quite sure how it’s going to be. I mean, you look at the free agency right now and how it’s affecting different teams. So for us to maintain that flexibility into the season is important.”

That flexibility is all geared toward finding a player who can drive a championship roster as Gilgeous-Alexander has for Oklahoma City. The Nets will have several avenues to do so.

After an offseason trade with the Houston Rockets, they have control of their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks, allowing them to select from a pool of highly-touted prospects. With 12 tradable first-round picks and a cache of cap space in the New York market, they’re positioned to trade for an established star if the opportunity presents itself.

The fallout from Brooklyn’s failed Big Three era has been bleak. Lopsided defeats will be commonplace during the second half of this season as the team aims to maximize its draft position. However, the Thunder’s turnaround offers hope that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel as the Nets pivot to a new era of basketball.

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