In mid-September, it was announced that the Brooklyn Nets had officially acquired former No. 15 pick Kobe Bufkin from the Atlanta Hawks for cash considerations. 

It was a short-lived stint, as Brooklyn waived the young guard just over a month later, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The Brooklyn Nets are waiving guard Kobe Bufkin, sources tell ESPN. The former No. 15 pick was traded from Atlanta to Brooklyn last month for cash considerations and now becomes a free agent.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 19, 2025

The move wasn’t an earth-shattering one to begin with, but will it have implications on the Nets’ upcoming season? It’s more than likely it won’t.

The Nets took a risk on acquiring Bufkin in the first place, but did so without giving up much in return. Drafted in 2023, he’d yet to find his footing in Atlanta, averaging 5.0 points per game on 37% shooting across two seasons. It’s a safe assumption Brooklyn thought he could potentially still tap into the same talent that made him a mid-first pick.

Across 14 games in the 2023-24 G League season, Bufkin averaged 23.6 points on 45% shooting, hitting on a blistering 36% of over seven attempts from beyond the arc. He looked a step above there, and one couldn’t fault NBA organizations for being curious.

He saw a few fine game versus Hapoel Jerusalem in this year’s preseason — scoring eight points with four rebounds. But he also saw a performance that have seemed to keep him an arm’s length from NBA rotations: 1-for-5 shooting with four turnovers versus the Suns, and he received DNP’s in the Nets’ other two games.

Ultimately, it seems Bufkin failed to show enough in camp and in live-game scenarios to warrant staying in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn is projected to be one of the league’s lesser teams next year, meaning if Bufkin couldn’t earn his way with the Nets, it might not be in the cards to do so elsewhere.

In the grand scheme of things, Bufkin’s waiving means very little for the team’s 2025-26 campaign. If anything, they’ll now have even more opportunity to give to their crop of rookie handlers such as Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf and even Danny Wolf. The Bufkin trade was seen as a low-risk, high-reward, given only cash considerations were used.

In the least, Brooklyn fans cant rest assured the organization is still pulling out all the stops to acquire talent, even outside of the NBA Draft, which it will assuredly look to again in 2026.

The Nets now look to the regular season, which they’ll open up against the Charlotte Hornets. The two teams will tip off at 6 p.m. CT, Oct. 22.