Things may very well get worse for the Brooklyn Nets before they get better. The 2024-25 season was not yet rock bottom for the Nets. That was a roster that still had quality players such as Cam Johnson and even D'Angelo Russell did some damage for them towards the end of the season. Cam Thomas should soon be brought back from restricted free agency, and Nicolas Claxton is still on the roster, but things are about to be very bleak, very fast for this Nets squad.

Gone is Johnson, and in is Michael Porter Jr., who will be tasked to take part in a “take as many difficult, ill-advised shots as possible” competition alongside Thomas. Russell also bolted, signing with the Dallas Mavericks to be their new starting point guard. Terance Mann is in, and he has a history of being a solid role player on a winning team. Claxton remains. Ziaire Williams, Keon Johnson, and Jalen Wilson got plenty of reps last year. Day'Ron Sharpe and Noah Clowney are solid bench pieces.

But a quick glance at the roster would suggest that this team may not win more than 15 games next season. This team is going to be horrendous.

They have a million point guards from the 2025 NBA Draft who may not end up controlling the ball since Thomas and Porter are going to dominate possession, they don't have a star player who can make sense of this weird collection of talent, and to top it all off, they have such a logjam in seemingly every position that makes it difficult to project any potential breakout for anyone on this roster.

There has to be another move that the Nets pull off to at least make the roster make more sense.

At this point, the Nets have to be aware that they're not going to win many ballgames next season. Head coach Jordi Fernandez cannot conjure enough magic for the team to be anything remotely close to being good for the upcoming campaign, so they might as well just grab the best assets they can and be the team that ends up snagging Jonathan Kuminga.

Now, a team with Kuminga, Porter, and Thomas will make fans of free-flowing basketball with plenty of ball movement throw up. Everyone is just going to do their own thing, with Kuminga recklessly careening into multiple defenders, Porter jacking up contested threes on the move every chance he gets, and Thomas looking to take his defenders to school on every possession, and with no veteran point guard around to rein everyone in, it's going to be chaos for the Nets.

The Nets have their own 2026 first-round pick anyway, so it's not like there's a downside to Brooklyn going all-in on being a bad team. Kuminga, at best, would give the Nets two or three extra wins, which shouldn't matter when they're about to be in the running to be the worst team of all-time.

Brooklyn can open up the cap space required to tender Kuminga an offer sheet, which would put pressure on the Golden State Warriors to either match that offer or engage with them on a sign-and-trade that would at least net the Dubs some assets for the former seventh overall pick.

Acquiring Kuminga at least gives the Nets a 22-year-old forward who's shown flashes of being a 20-points per game scorer in this league, giving them a trade asset that they could then package with some draft capital and young players to acquire the next available star on the trade market.

Everything is looking bleak for the Nets, unless their five first-round picks this year hit in a big way. So asset accumulation is what they must set their sights on, and Kuminga would immediately come in as one of their most valuable players — which is more of a commentary on how dire circumstances are for Brooklyn more so than Kuminga being valuable.

With increased opportunity in Brooklyn, Kuminga's value could also increase from here. And that should only help as the Nets look to piece together a contending roster brick by boring brick.

While the Nets have made a few confounding decisions this offseason (like spending a chunk of their cap space on Mann and absorbing Porter's contract, with MPJ making around $17 million more than Johnson), it's not too late for them to be a major player in restricted free agency. But time is of the essence for the Nets.