Once the 2025 NBA offseason is officially underway for all 30 teams, one squad is uniquely positioned to shape what happens more than everyone else.
It is not the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have more draft picks than PUR has pieces of gum. It is not the Los Angeles Lakers, who have LeBron James potentially entering free agency (player option), and must reshape the roster around Luka Doncic. It isn't even the Milwaukee Bucks, who may have to reconcile the future of Giannis Antetokounmpo after losing their first-round series to the Indiana Pacers, and after Damian Lillard suffered a torn Achilles that may sideline him through all of next season.
No, the team most likely to define the NBA's summertime activity is the Brooklyn Nets.
Cap space around the NBA is in short supply
Cap space makes the offseason go 'round, both in free agency and trade talks. The Nets have more of it than every other team, which is to say, they project to have cap space at all.
Brooklyn is currently slated to have over $65 million in spending power. That number can climb past $80 million if the Nets renounce the rights to restricted free agent Cam Thomas, and depending on where their 2025 first-round pick lands in the lottery.
Granted, general manager Sean Marks doesn't need to trip over himself creating even more room. The Detroit Pistons have the next largest chunk of projected cap space, at somewhere between $20 million and $25 million. And yet, their wiggle room may already be spoken for, depending on how much Malik Beasley costs to retain.
After Detroit, only two other teams are in position to carve out cap space larger than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception of $14.1 million: The Chicago Bulls, who can get up to almost $20 million, and the Memphis Grizzlies, who can dredge up more than $17 million. Yet, even these numbers aren't that much more than the MLE. They are also extremely conditional. Chicago's cap space evaporates if it re-signs Josh Giddey (restricted free agent), and the same goes for Memphis if it intends to keep Santi Aldama (also restricted).
This is all to say: The Nets may be the only team with actual cap space over the summer. And that allows them to do, well, anything and everything.
The Nets can use their cap space in all sorts of ways
Many assume cap space is exclusively a free-agency tool. It's not. But the Nets can certainly use it as such.
Marks is no stranger to driving up the asking price on players from other teams, and messing with rival cap sheets in the process. During Brooklyn's last rebuilding phase, he tendered mega offers to restricted free agents such as Otto Porter Jr., Tyler Johnson, and Allen Crabbe. The Nets did not get any of them (though, they'd acquire them later), but they succeeded in costing other squads more money.
Though this year's free-agency class isn't particularly deep, Marks and Co. could decide to take a similar approach. Maybe they force the Bulls to spend more to keep Giddey. Or perhaps they coax the Golden State Warriors into paying through the teeth for Jonathan Kuminga (restricted).
Brooklyn can also leverage its cap space in trade talks. It has the ability to take back massive amounts of money without sending out contracts in return. That is hyper-valuable in the new salary-cap era, as teams look to stay beneath the financially and functionally punitive tax aprons.
There will also be opportunities for the Nets to facilitate big-time transactions. Heck, the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade sweepstakes could run through them. Expensive suitors may need to reroute certain contracts elsewhere to make the trade-math work, or to simply prevent themselves from being hard-capped at the first or second apron.
This all leaves Marks with a ton of options—and, more importantly, gobs of leverage. Even if the Nets are not directly involved in the glitziest transactions, they will almost assuredly lend a helping hand in completing (or forcing!) some of them.
Don't sleep on Brooklyn making its own splash, either
But wait, it gets better!
The Nets are rebuilding now. That won't be true in short order. They re-acquired control of their next two first-rounders. After that, they currently owe their 2027 first-rounder to the Houston Rockets. This current phase is seen as a two-year window in which Brooklyn will be bad, before re-accelerating the process.
But the Nets could decide to hit the turbo button even sooner. If Giannis Antetokounmpo is indeed available, their combination of cap space and draft equity render them a dark-horse destination. This same sentiment applies to any superstar who may hit the chopping block. And while Marks has cautioned against over-acceleration in the past, his stance could change depending on where Brooklyn lands in the draft lottery. It gets a lot more tempting to move faster and more aggressively if you bag Cooper Flagg.
There is also the flip-side of this coin. The Nets could lean even further into their rebuild by shopping their own players. Both Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton would be among the league's most sought-after trade targets if they become available. There may even be certain teams interested in a Cam Thomas sign-and-trade.
Traveling down the seller's path isn't a mandate. That's actually the point. The Nets have options galore thanks to their unrivaled flexibility. And that flexibility will define not only their offseason, but potentially everyone else's, too.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.