The Nets rebuild can probably be traced back to June 25, 2024 when Brooklyn made two trades within minutes of each other that signals half steps were over. One sent Mikal Bridges to New York for five first rounders, a first round swap and a second rounder; the other an exchange of firsts with the Rockets that brought back a first rounder and a first round swap they had originally sent Houston in the first James Harden trade.
The second step was the two-year-long tank that helped the Nets get two high — although not as high as they had hoped — firsts in Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr.