Rumors

Brian Lewis: Cui Yongxi - or Jacky Cui - is grinding on his comeback to the #NBA. He tore his ACL in December with the Long Island #Nets. He’d been working out in Brooklyn but has now moved on from HSS Training Center and is up to going 5-on-5 out in LA. Could be an option for a couple teams.

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Bobby Marks: Haywood Highsmith is on an expiring $5.6M contract. Including the $12.1M Cam Thomas free agent hold, Brooklyn is $22M below the salary cap. They have until Oct. 21 to reach 90% of the salary cap.

Twitter

Tim Reynolds: Heat are under the tax line. Haywood Highsmith and a 2032 second rounder are being traded to Brooklyn for a conditional 2026 second rounder, source tells AP. Highsmith had knee surgery a few days ago and is likely to need until sometime in October before he is full-go again.

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Michael Scotto: The Brooklyn Nets have officially acquired forward Haywood Highsmith and the Miami Heat’s 2032 second-round draft pick in exchange for Brooklyn’s 2026 second-round draft pick, which is protected from the 31st overall pick through the 55th overall selection.

x.com

The Nets' Cam Thomas might be the most likely of the four notable restricted free agents out there — along with Giddey, Kuminga and Philadelphia's Quentin Grimes — to take the bet-on-yourself option and accept his qualifying offer. Brooklyn has not made an aggressive effort to retain Thomas on any long-term deal, sources say. Sources also say Thomas is showing an increasing interest in playing out next season on a $6 million qualifier for the right to enjoy true free agency next summer.

marcstein.substack.com

D'Angelo Russell on what makes the Brooklyn Nets special: "The organization in Brooklyn is unlike any other... I came from the Lakers where the structure is not the same, and then I go to Brooklyn where it’s all structure and it taught me how to be a professional.”

reddit

Ian Begley: Knicks trading five first round picks to acquire bridges from Brooklyn last year. So you either have to extend him or you have to include him in a trade that got you something significant back. Now that bridges has agreed to this extension, he is not eligible to be traded for the next six months. Knicks also have another roster spot that they can fill if they want to. Uh, they remain interested in Ben Simmons, interested in Landry Shamet. It'll be interesting to see which way they go with that last roster spot.

x.com

Since there are no cap-space teams in circulation to emerge with an offer sheet to Thomas or fellow restricted free agents like Golden State's Jonathan Kuminga and Chicago's Josh Giddey, Brooklyn appears to be in no rush to expedite discussions with Thomas' representation.

marcstein.substack.com

As of July 25, the Utah Jazz are the only team aside from Brooklyn with meaningful spending power. But league sources are skeptical about Utah’s interest. “Utah holds the cards for restricted free agency if they want to. It’s not just Cam, but he’s one of the RFAs who I don’t see as being appealing for the Jazz. They’re building around defense, size, and versatility,” a Western Conference scout explained to FastbreakJournal.com. “Cam is a pure scorer, but he doesn’t fit the long-term vision they’re selling internally.”

Fast Break Journal

The Brooklyn Nets traded Cam Johnson to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Michael Porter Jr. this offseason. However, it’s not the first time Johnson was dealt via trade, as he was originally traded to Brooklyn from the Phoenix Suns. Johnson revealed that he learned about that deal the hard way. During a guest appearance on “The Young Man and the Three” podcast, the 29-year-old forward revealed that he learned about the trade from his brother, who called him about it. Cam Johnson didn’t believe it, as the call came in at 1:30 in the morning.

Clutch Points

“That’s what happened when I got traded from Phoenix to Brooklyn,” said Cam Johnson. “It was my little brother that called me. And then my Dad, and then my girlfriend at the time was like ‘oh my God!… Because I wasn’t on Twitter, like I didn’t have Twitter. So, it was just like, I didn’t hear about it. Until they called me and said, ‘You got traded.’ I’m like, ‘Are ya’ll joking? It’s 1:30 in the morning.”

Clutch Points

Kyrie Irving: “And I’ve had to accept that as a human being and as a leader—not everybody’s going to do what you want them to do. Not everybody’s going to be committed the way you want them to be committed. Right. And—and it’s not like K is asking me for this, but it’s like I’m ask—I asked for this commitment before I committed to Brooklyn from him, which was a beautiful thing. I’m like, ‘Yo, let’s commit to this thing. We could build up Brooklyn. We could really put Brooklyn on the map. You know, nobody’s really thinking about Brooklyn.’ But when he said that, I’m like, ‘Bro, Steve wasn’t even in the play yet. But this is your mans. This is your man. So I got to support that. This is your mans. Cool. You want him? Cool. I—you like Steve? I love Steve.’ You know what I’m saying? Cool. As—as a younger brother, I’m like, ‘Okay. I don’t care. That’s fine. You want Steve coach, that’s fine.’ But when you’re committed to the same goal and then a year changes things and then things going behind the scenes, like, come on.”

YouTube

Kyrie Irving on Kevin Durant: There was so much spun narratives after we left Brooklyn, right? It wasn't perfect, but I can honestly say I took a chance on winning a championship with my best friend. We had an incredible time. I can honestly take accountability for my actions, right? And say that I wasn't always in the best space mentally, spiritually, physically, emotionally. So, I take my accountability and I'm and I'm sorry to any of those out there that are impacted negatively.

YouTube

Kyrie Irving: Ime Udoka literally went to the Boston Celtics after coaching with us in Brooklyn. That was crazy, bro. You know, that was crazy. We had Ime Udoka literally go to Boston the next year. Like you had coaches leaving other teams. And it wasn't anybody's fault. It's just opportunity. But we're in the same Division. Can you imagine going against the coach that literally saw all of our strengths and weaknesses and now we're playing against them? You know what I'm saying? So Boston was ready for us. Ime had them ready. He had the Celtics ready, dog. When we played them in the 2022 playoffs, sh*t got wild. Sh*t got wild, y'all. For sure sh*t got wild. So, we had a lot going on.

YouTube