What the Nets actually learned from developing five first-round rookies at once

Last June, the Nets didn’t just draft prospects. They drafted a problem almost no team willingly creates for itself.

After falling to No. 8 in the 2025 NBA Draft, Brooklyn selected Egor Dëmin, then added Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf later in the first round, becoming the first team in NBA history to make five first-round picks in one night. It was a bold talent grab, but it was also an organizational stress test.

Developing one rookie is standard. Developing five at once is something closer to controlled chaos. That’s what made this season so revealing.

The Nets didn’t spend 2025-26 proving they had discovered some clean new blueprint for rebuilding. What they did instead was learn how difficult it is to develop that much youth at once without clouding the very evaluations you’re trying to make. They gave out minutes, absorbed mistakes and pushed five first-round picks through an NBA season all at once. In the process, they came away with something almost as useful as certainty: a better sense of which parts of the experiment were worth repeating.

That’s a meaningful outcome for a franchise headed toward another premium draft pick.

Brooklyn led the NBA in rookie minutes this season, which is impressive until you consider what that actually looks like on the floor. It looks like 20-62. It looks like one rookie flashing while another fades, then the whole thing flipping again a week later. It looks like development in its least glamorous form, which is to say messy, public and often hard to judge.

General manager Sean Marks, naturally, chose to emphasize the benefit.

“One thing we can certainly be proud of is the development and the opportunity that was afforded to specifically the young guys, for the rookies,” Marks said. He added that Brooklyn’s rookie class “played more minutes than anybody else in the league from a rookie class standpoint.”

That should count for something. Most teams talk about development. The Nets handed it over in bulk and lived with the consequences. There is value in that, especially for a rebuilding team with no reason to fake urgency.

But there’s another side to it, too. Heavy rookie minutes can accelerate growth. They can also complicate judgment. When five first-round picks are learning on the fly, often in lineups short on experience and continuity, it becomes harder to separate what belongs to the player from what belongs to the conditions around him. A rough stretch might mean a rookie is overwhelmed. It might also mean he’s being asked to create beyond his current level, adjust to a role that doesn’t fit yet or survive in a season built more for discovery than structure.

Dëmin flashed the highest upside as a big playmaker with vision and feel. Traoré took his lumps early but started and excelled down the stretch. Powell showed why the Nets remain drawn to his defensive tools, even as he struggled offensively for much of the season. Saraf closed well. Wolf showed enough skill, size and versatility to stay firmly in the mix.

In other words, the class looked exactly like a class should look when five first-round picks are being developed at once: promising in pieces, unfinished as a whole and more intriguing by April than it was in October.

The Nets now have a better feel for what each rookie might become. They also have a sharper understanding of how hard it is to build structure while also handing that much responsibility to players who are still learning what the league asks of them. That was the balancing act. Development requires exposure. Evaluation requires context. Brooklyn spent the season trying to do both at once.

Head coach Jordi Fernández made clear which side of that equation he values most.

“The best player-development coach ever is real minutes,” Fernández said. “Not just minutes, but competitive minutes.”

That philosophy shaped the season. Fernández pointed to Dëmin’s shooting, the paint pressure from Traoré and Saraf, Powell’s defensive numbers and Wolf’s playmaking, rebounding and shooting as signs of growth. More important, he pointed to the experiences that can’t be manufactured. Tough road environments. NBA stars across the floor. Trips to Long Island, then returns to Brooklyn with more poise than before.

Now the Nets get to test the model again, only with higher stakes.

Brooklyn enters the NBA Draft lottery in Chicago on May 10 with a 52.1% chance at a top-four pick and a 14.0% chance at No. 1 overall. If the ping-pong balls bounce its way, the chance to draft AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson or Cameron Boozer would change the temperature of the rebuild in a hurry. The draft itself is June 23 and 24 at Barclays Center, putting the next phase of this project on Brooklyn’s home floor.

Another top pick would be a gift. It would also sharpen the challenge.

The Nets just spent a season trying to give five first-round rookies enough opportunity to grow without losing the shape of the team around them. Add another lottery-level prospect, and the upside rises. So does the degree of difficulty. Another young cornerstone means another developmental priority, another role to sort through, another timeline to manage inside a rebuild that is still more collection than conclusion.

Marks said the approach to the pick will stay simple.

“We always look at the best available,” he said. “Number one, we’re looking for a competitive guy.”

That’s the right answer for where Brooklyn is. The Nets aren’t drafting to complete a finished roster. They are still building the case for who deserves to be part of the next one. This stage of a rebuild is not about polish. It is about identifying whose talent, habits and competitiveness can survive the instability that comes with growing up together.

So no, the Nets didn’t spend this season proving that five first-round picks at once is some elegant new model the rest of the league should rush to copy. What they did prove is that the gamble was serious, useful and worth the discomfort it created. They learned enough to keep going. Soon, they’ll find out whether they learned enough to do it again.

“Right now, what these guys have shown so far, it’s been very positive,” Fernández said. “And then there’s continuity into the summer. That’s why the season is behind us and now we’re all very excited for what’s coming.”