Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks made a number of moves this offseason as he was looking to set the team up for the 2025-26 NBA season and beyond. Brooklyn is still projected to be one of the worst teams despite the numbers of transactions that were made this summer, and it seems like the job Marks is doing is not inspiring much confidence.
“Michael Porter Jr. isn’t as versatile a forward as Cameron Johnson. His salary is almost twice as high, too. But the Brooklyn Nets snagging an unprotected 2032 first-rounder from the Denver Nuggets could potentially be huge,” Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey wrote. B/R gave Marks a B grade for the new additions to the roster, including acquiring forward Michael Porter Jr. from the Denver Nuggets via trade.
“Nikola Jokic will be 37 then, and Denver could be lottery bound,” Bailey continued when discussing why the outlet graded Marks in a positive manner. “The other major offseason addition (outside the draft) is Terance Mann, and his contract feels primed to be flipped again ahead of the deadline.”
Some of the other notable moves that Marks made during the offseason in addition to acquiring Porter was trading for Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin and acquiring forward Terance Mann, also from the Hawks along with a 2025 first-round pick. Brooklyn was able to add some depth at the guard and forward spots with those trades, especially since they used the first-round pick on forward Drake Powell, a player that could potentially fit the 3-and-D role for the Nets in the future.
As it pertains to the Nets trading away forward Cam Johnson to the Nuggets for Porter and a 2032 first-round pick, one could argue that Brooklyn downgraded in some way with the transaction. In terms of the 2024-25 campaign, Johnson outpaced Porter in several categories, including points per game, assists per game, and box score plus/minus.
However, Porter played 20 more games (77 to 57) than Johnson did, rebounded the ball better, and had better shooting percentages than Johnson from the field and from behind the three-point line. Porter is slated to make $18 million more over the course of the 2025-26 campaign, but it does seem like the value of the 2032 Denver first-round pick could be the motivation behind the trade as Marks took a different approach to the offseason.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets’ Sean Marks receives B grade for 2025 NBA offseason additions
