Nets waive Whitehead and Timme

The Brooklyn Nets played a little out with the not-so-old and in with the really, really young on Monday.

They announced that they waived forward Drew Timme and guard Dariq Whitehead following the team’s fourth trip to China and first since 2019.

Timme and Whitehead both showed signs of development last season, but neither will be in a Brooklyn uniform come Oct. 22, when the Nets open the campaign in Charlotte.

With five first-round picks, four of which general manager Sean Marks selected on draft night before acquiring another from Phoenix to complete a previous deal, our borough’s NBA franchise is clearly going with a youth movement.

However, Timme is only 25 after making his first foray into the league with Brooklyn last year and Whitehead is nearly four years younger and was the Nets’ first-rounder (22nd overall) in 2023.

The rookie class Marks is counting on to change the narrative Downtown features 19-year-olds Egor Dёmin, Ben Saraf and Nolan Traore, 20-year-old Drake Powell and 21-year-old Danny Wolf.

Dёmin, picked eighth overall by the organization back in June, has yet to log a single minute in preseason play as he continues to recover from a left-foot injury.

The rest of the “Fab Five” continued to get NBA experience overseas as Brooklyn split the two-game series with Phoenix, dropping a 132-127 overtime decision in the opener Friday before pulling out a 111-109 win Sunday.

“We have to be better handling physicality,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández noted after his team improved to 3-1 during the exhibition campaign.

“But the resiliency, I’m very happy with,” he added. “Our guys, how much they fought, and they tried to do the right things, especially our second unit, third unit.”

With Timme and Whitehead gone, the Nets still have to figure out how to get to only 15 players by Opening Night.

Veterans Tyrese Martin and Jalen Wilson, both of whom played significant minutes in starting and reserve roles during Fernández’s first year at the helm in 2025-25, could be vying for the final spot once the Nets wrap up the preseason in Toronto Friday night.

Fernández shied away from tipping his hand in China regarding roster moves, but the Nets acted swiftly once they landed back in New York on Monday.

“It’s a good question, but we’re still in the preseason,” he said following the series finale vs. the Suns. “And our plan is more so to ramp up these guys and find our rotation. … We’re still evaluating a lot of these guys.”

Timme, who was inked to what the team described as a multi-year deal after starring at the G-League level for the Long Island Nets, averaged 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists in his first nine NBA games, including a pair of starts.

If he doesn’t find an interested NBA suitor before camps break, he might be back on the Brooklyn roster on a two-way deal.

Whitehead didn’t quite make the impact Marks was hoping for when he picked him out of Duke. The 6-foot-6 Newark, N.J., native only appeared in 20 games off the bench in two seasons here, averaging 5.3 points and 1.5 boards.

Tip-off in Toronto is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday.

The game will air locally on the YES Network.

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In other local pro hoops news, the New York Liberty are still conducting their coaching search after the dismissal of Sandy Brondello last month.

The New York Post reported over the weekend that Kristi Toliver, an associate head coach with WNBA Finals runner-up Phoenix, would be interviewed by Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb.

A 14-year veteran of the league as a player, Toliver helped the Mercury end New York’s repeat quest as Phoenix won the opening-round series in three tough games, leading to the ousting of Brondello.

As reported in last week’s Eagle, Toliver was on a list of potential hires, including Liberty assistant Sonia Raman, as well as fellow WNBA assistants Rebekkah Brunson of Minnesota and Indiana’s Briann January.

Now that Vegas completed a four-game sweep of Phoenix in the Finals to grab its third title in four years, the Liberty are on the clock to figure out who will be leading them back into championship contention next year.

“We need to nail this (hiring),” Kolb readily ceded last month after firing the most successful coach in franchise history.

“If we’re going to make a bold decision like this, our players deserve to get the best, and so we’ll take the time necessary.”