It’s never over until it’s over and the value of the Brooklyn Nets The Big Three trades won’t be fully realized for another seven years. By then, all of the draft picks the Nets received in trades for Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden will have been recorded on NBA books.
Still, experts will scan the NBA horizon and project, project, project. Earlier this week, the Bleacher Report team looked at some of the NBA’s biggest names over the past five years and included the contracts of all three superstars in an offseason survey of trade valuations.
Their main goal was to trade Durant at the deadline. Phoenix Suns in 2023 … and the subsequent moves made by the Nets to redirect the big piece the Nets received in that trade, Mikal Bridges, to the Knicks and rebuilding Harden’s 2021 draft assets Houston Rockets.
Dan Favale is so fascinated by the final result that he gives the Nets an A++++ (four positives), the biggest improvement of any trade reviewed by B/R. Here’s his reasoning:
Brooklyn’s super team had completely collapsed by the time the team negotiated Durant’s trade. Getting that much for a disgruntled 34-year-old who preferred a trade to a team was still a big deal.
The Nets have since parlayed that into a bigger win.
Getting rid of Durant gave them a much-needed reset. It took them more than a season to get there, but they’re here now, and they have even more picks to show for it.
Bridges was just traded to the New York Knicks for five additional first-round picks and another first-round swap. Brooklyn was also able to leverage Phoenix’s 2027 and 2029 picks to regain control of its own 2025 and 2026 first-round picks.
In total, the Nets turned KD and two trades into seven additional first-round picks, returning the rights to a pair of their own first-round picks, two more trades and Cam Johnson. (Crowder was also used to get second-round picks from Milwaukee in 2028 and 2029, another smart move.)
Demolitions are often overly romantic, but Brooklyn had no choice. It made the most of a situation that could have torpedoed both its present and its future.
A few footnotes on Favale’s analysis: “Exploiting” the Suns’ 2027 and 2029 picks to take away the Rockets’ trade rights to the 2025 first-round pick and return the 2026 first-round pick was a bit more complicated. The Nets sent the Rockets’ trade rights to the Suns’ 2025 and 2029 first-round picks as well as the Suns’ 2027 first-round pick, which had been rated in some previous analyses as the best traded pick in the NBA. The two second-round picks the Nets got in the Jae Crowder trade were used to shed salaries for Joe Harris and Patty Mills. (Part of Harris’ trade exception was used to facilitate the Dennis Schroder deal.) Of course, if the Nets can get a nice return on Cam Johnson, that would boost revenue.
The Suns, who despite being a super team were swept in the first round of last season’s playoffs, got a revised B.
It was a huge gamble at the time. It seems even riskier now. Phoenix has changed head coaches twice since the trade, and despite some nice minimum-price acquisitions since then, its roster is full of question marks and not enough wingers.
However, if the Suns win a title with KD, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, that grade automatically becomes an A. (The last time the Nets received an A++++ grade for a trade was when they traded for Deron Williams in 2011. How did that work out?)
The revaluation of Kyrie’s trade was less positive, not because the Nets did poorly, but because The Dallas Mavericks did better than expected.
Brooklyn had no choice but to extricate itself from an untenable situation, and it apparently did well to get future first-rounders in addition…
Irving has emerged as a perfect secondary offensive weapon to support Dončić. He’s been warmly welcomed by his teammates, stayed in line away from the court and has been indispensable in the Mavs’ run to the 2024 Finals.
Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes gave the Nets a B and the Mavericks an A in this reclassification.
The Nets still retain Dorian Finney-Smith, who they are reportedly trading, as well as the Mavericks’ 2029 first- and second-round picks, both unprotected. They traded Spencer Dinwiddie to the Toronto Raptors for Dennis Schroder (and Thaddeus Young who they waived) and used a 2027 Mavs second-round pick on the Joe Harris salary dump.
Harden’s trade with the 76ers It remains a disaster for both sides. In case you forgot, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey is here to remind you.
The 76ers receive: James Harden and Paul Millsap
The nets receive: Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, Ben Simmons, a 2023 first-round pick (Brice Sensabaugh was later selected) and a 2027 first-round draft pick.
It’s also worth noting that the 2027 first-round pick is protected in the top 8, and if it’s not used in this draft, it will be rolled over to 2028 with the same protections. Based on the Sixers’ offseason, the pick seems likely to be used in 2027.
Bailey gives the 76ers a revised C, mainly because Daryl Morey was able to trade an increasingly fragile Harden to the Clippers. The Nets, meanwhile, get a D.
As for Brooklyn, it’s easy to criticize the Nets right now. The Simmons trade, barring a dramatic development this season, was a failure. Seth Curry and Andre Drummond are no longer on the team. Brice Sensabaugh never even played a game there (he was traded for Royce O’Neale).
But there’s still a chance this could be redeemable for Brooklyn. And I mean outside. Having that 2027 pick probably makes it better, but it’s protected.
Bleacher Report hasn’t re-evaluated the Nets’ initial trade for Harden, but it certainly seems like it would be graded as a flat F with the potential to be among the worst trades in franchise history. Jarrett Allen has become an All-Star and a $100 million player in Cleveland and Caris LeVert is still a reliable player for the Cavaliers.
While the Nets were able to get two picks in June, they didn’t get their 2024 pick back. Not only did it drop from No. 9 to No. 3 in the lottery, but the prospect selected with that pick, Reed Sheppard, was just voted likely Rookie of the Year by ESPN’s panel of experts. It wasn’t close, either, with 62 percent of the vote choosing Sheppard. Plus, the Rockets hold yet another of the Nets’ draft assets: the right to trade first-round picks in 2027. (The Rockets also got promising guard Tari Eason with the Nets’ 2022 draft pick.)
Does it all balance out in the end? Ultimately discover.
