3 Nets players destined for a one-way flight out of Brooklyn in 2025

Brooklyn needs 2025 to be a year of change, and where you can find change in professional sports, multiple lockers are getting cleaned out.

Who else will join Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith on a one-way flight out of Brooklyn this season?

Bojan Bogdanovic

Bogdanovic, who started his NBA career with the Nets (2014-2017), rejoined the team last July in a trade that sent Mikal Bridges to New York. The 35-year-old forward has been sidelined due to injuries since and still doesn’t have a timetable for return, either. With Bogdanovic in the final year of his contract, Brooklyn could use the veteran shooter to help accumulate more assets ahead of the Feb. 6 deadline or let his $19 million deal expire, freeing up valuable cap space needed to pursue a star. 

Regardless of the path, Bogdanovic is gone by the summer. Through 10 years in the league, the Croatian has also made stops in Washington (2017), Indiana (2017-2019), Utah (2019-2022), Detroit (2022-2024) and New York (2024). 

Cameron Johnson 

Noted every time: the Nets don't have to move on from Johnson, whatsoever. However, despite reports that Brooklyn sees him as a good fit next to a star addition this offseason, Johnson seems destined to leave the Borough sooner rather than later. 

"That's all good to say, but they'll trade him if they get what they want," a rival executive recently told ESPN. "They like him as a player and a person and all that, but they built his contract specifically to be able to trade him by next summer."

Brooklyn is hopeful that Johnson, averaging a career-best 19.5 points per game on a 49.6-percent shooting clip, will yield multiple first-round draft picks in a trade. Still, alongside the unlikely bonuses tied to his contract with two years left, some negotiations could stall and present the need for a third team’s involvement. Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Memphis and Indiana remain lead suitors for the Nets’ 28-year-old forward.

If 2025 plays out how Brooklyn intends, Johnson will land elsewhere.

Ben Simmons

The Nets will unsurprisingly also move on from Simmons, earning $40.3 million in the last year of his deal, to continue star hunting in 2025. If you’re a team that wants consistency going forward, expecting Simmons to play in a winning rotation is a fool’s game. During his last appearance Friday against the Nuggets, his eight points (4/5 FG) and four assists in the first quarter were followed by just two points (1/2 FG) and three assists across the final three frames.

Simmons’ entire stint with the Nets has been the same gimmick – a complete inability to impose his will throughout games, and seasons, long enough to hold any significance. The former No. 1 overall pick is loaded with potential that hasn’t shown up in years, leading him out of Brooklyn to search for it again as the Nets rebuild through the draft and free agency. 

If something interesting were to present itself, the Nets could flip Simmons now.