Sean Marks breaks silence on NBA Draft lottery as Nets clinch top odds

The Brooklyn Nets had several objectives entering the 2025-26 campaign. None was more pressing than securing top odds in May’s Draft Lottery. The rebuilding squad accomplished that goal on Thursday.

With a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and wins by the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz, Brooklyn clinched a bottom-three finish. When the ping pong balls are drawn next month, the Nets will have the maximum 14.0 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick and a 52.1 percent chance of landing in the top four. They cannot drop below seventh.

After finishing with the sixth-worst record and falling to the No. 8 pick last year, Sean Marks is hoping for better fortune this time around.

“Look, I’m not going to lie and say I’m not nervous going into that,” the Nets GM told YES Network on Thursday. “I’m nervous for the way the ping pong balls land. But at the end of the day, it’s like if you’ve done your work, if you’re prepared, and I give [assistant GM] B.J. Johnson and the rest of our amateur scouting department a lot of credit. They’ve put hours and hours and days and weeks into preparing for the last draft, just like they did this draft. So we’re going to be prepared, wherever they fall. Obviously, we hope for as high as possible. But at the end of the day, it’s exciting for us to see what other piece do we add to our team, and then go from there.”

Falling to No. 8 in the 2025 draft was a devastating result for the Nets. While they landed a promising player in Egor Demin, they missed out on top talents such as Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, V.J. Edgecombe and Kon Kneuppel.

Nets hoping luck is on their side after securing top odds in 2026 NBA Draft Lottery

The Nets went back to the drawing board and cranked up their tanking urgency this season. They brought in an NBA record five rookie first-round picks and fully leaned into a younger rotation during the closing stretch of the season. A 5-23 close to the season, and some help from the Sacramento Kings, who have posted a 10-13 record over their last 23 games, gave the Nets the maximum odds of landing one of the coveted top four picks in June’s draft.

And they’ll need it.

Of all the teams angling for a top pick, you’d be hard-pressed to find one more starved for a top-tier young talent than Brooklyn. The Nets have picked in the top six of the draft once in the last 25 years, selecting Derrick Favors with the No. 3 pick in the 2010 draft. Favors played just 39 games with the team before being traded to the Utah Jazz as part of a package for Deron Williams.

The Nets have picked in the top 14 of the draft 24 times before last year. Those players have combined for just seven All-Star appearances with the team. Buck Williams (drafted in 1981) is the Nets’ only lottery pick to make multiple All-Star appearances with the team. Derrick Coleman (1994), Kenny Anderson (1994), Kenyon Martin (2004) and Brook Lopez (2013) each earned a single All-Star selection.

This year’s draft has an opportunity to change that, with perceived franchise-altering talents such as A.J. Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer up for grabs. Nets fans will have their fingers crossed on May 10, but this time knowing the team gave itself the best chance of landing a top pick.

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