The continuation of the Brooklyn Nets’ roster trimming has resulted in the waiving of one fan favorite and a former first-round pick.
On Monday, the franchise announced on X that Drew Timme and Dariq Whitehead had been waived, posting a commemorative “thank you” message for each. Timme’s can be found here, while Whitehead’s can be found here.
Timme spent the majority of the 2024-25 campaign with Brooklyn’s G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, before eventually being signed to the active roster after averaging a monster stat line of 23.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. He agreed to a multi-year contract upon his elevation and immediately proved his worth, albeit toward the end of a lost season. Timme posted 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists a night in nine appearances.
Whitehead, a 2023 first-rounder out of Duke, never quite materialized in Brooklyn. He’s been held out with multiple injuries throughout his tenure, including a stress reaction in his left shin, which required season-ending surgery, ending his rookie campaign before Whitehead could even participate in his third career game. He showed promise as a potential marksman in moments last season, but ultimately didn’t impress enough to hold onto his roster spot. Like Timme, Whitehead also has plenty of experience on Long Island.
It’s currently unknown what could be next for these two, but their combined history with Brooklyn’s G League affiliate could lead to a return there. That’s purely speculation, of course, but given their familiarity with the organization and the Nets’ desire to stack Long Island, that possibility certainly shouldn’t be ruled out.
The simultaneous moves create some relief in both the back and frontcourts, positional groups that were quite crowded prior to the transactions.
Brooklyn will now roll with Nic Claxton, Day’Ron Sharpe, Noah Clowney, Danny Wolf and potentially Fanbo Zeng as its big man group—barring any further roster turnover. Regarding guard play, the reins now fall solely on Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, Cam Thomas, Drake Powell, Terance Mann and Kobe Bufkin to execute Jordi Fernandez’s offense.
We’ll have to wait for the regular season to commence to truly evaluate whether either was the right decision here, but if one were to float a prediction, it seems more likely that Brooklyn will miss Timme’s presence. Whitehead didn’t get enough opportunities for there to be a true verdict on him, but when Timme was on the floor, he popped.
The Nets now hope that neither ends up with a conference rival, as that could leave a sour taste in the mouths of their fan base.