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Whether you were in New Jersey or New York this summer, there was probably a celebration for the New York Knicks going on. After winning the NBA Finals back in June, fans of the Knicks were the happiest they have ever been.
Everyone in the city and the region was seemingly happy about this. Everyone besides Brooklyn Nets fans.
For the Nets fanbase, it was torture day and night. So much so that owner Joe Tsai admitted that it was embarrassing when he spoke to NetsDaily back in August.
The 2025-26 season for the Nets was a difficult one no doubt. Finishing with a 20-62 record, the Nets were surprisingly not the worst team in the Association. That honor belonged to the Washington Wizards.
For the Wizards at least, they were able to select the talented AJ Dybantsa with the first overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Many Nets fans prayed that they could have landed the first pick but, it was never meant to be.
Despite being in a rebuild, despite their rivals winning the championship, despite the disrespect they received in the offseason, the future is still bright in Brooklyn.
Now, the Nets by all means will not be championship contenders in the new season ahead. With how stacked the Eastern Conference and their own division is, the Nets don’t have a chance of winning the league. But, that doesn’t mean progress can’t be made in the new season ahead.
Think about a second-year player like Egor Dëmin for a second. For the many that follow this team closely, they understand that he’s in for a massive jump in his play this season. Dëmin had a couple of good moments on the court before his season ended early due to increased plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
This season, Dëmin will likely start in the backcourt with the team’s sixth overall pick in this past summer draft in Mikel Brown Jr. The discourse around the selection of Brown appeared to be confusing at first because some critics believed that Darius Acuff Jr. should have been a Net. After a good Summer League, however, Brown has been receiving praise from many around the league.
For the Nets, having two young stars like Brown and Dëmin should help them climb up the standings this season. If what Nets fans saw from them during Summer League is true, then this backcourt has the potential to be something great.
With getting through a rebuild, of course, the team has to show some signs of progress and competitiveness. Especially with the new rules implemented with the whole tanking ordeal in the league, the Nets can’t really tank this season.
During the offseason, the team made a few moves to bring them closer to relevancy and making the postseason again. In a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Julius Randle returns to the region as many recall his time with the Knicks a few seasons back.
Randle received a ton of angry messages from Knicks and Timberwolves fans in the past as his performance and efficiency declined whenever the playoffs took place. Still, this is a former All-NBA player we are talking about here and his veteran presence should be a point of emphasis considering how young the roster is around him.
Speaking of veteran presence here, Michael Porter Jr. is still with the team heading into the new season. Porter averaged 24.2 points per game in what was a career season for him across the board in 2025-26.
The big question regarding Porter is whether or not the team will extend him. There is a notion that if the team does not extend him before the regular season starts, he could be traded at the trade deadline in February.
Some have questioned if the pairing of Randle and Porter will work as well given their distinct playstyles. In fairness, both will help an offense that was the worst in the league last season so anything to make it better is allowed.
Looking at the rest of the team, there are other key details to tackle. In the four-team deal that included the Nets, Randle, and the Timberwolves, longtime member Nic Claxton was sent to the Chicago Bulls to help their rebuild. This should allow Day’Ron Sharpe to have an even bigger impact for the organization as he takes over for Claxton at center.
Adding to the Nets’ offseason, the team also added Iowa State forward Joshua Jefferson and selected UCLA’s Tyler Bilodeau in this summer’s draft. In free agency, the team brought in Keon Ellis and Mo Wagner who should provide some good league experience to the team.
It will also be interesting to see how their four other first-round picks from 2025 will develop in their second campaign with the organization. Dëmin should be fine, but will the likes of Drake Powell, Nolan Traoré, Danny Wolf and Ben Saraf continue to grow?
In terms of how many games the team will win, the projection is between 20 to 30 wins and a last place finish in the Atlantic Division is most likely. MPJ, however, believes 50+ wins is a possibility. Even for the Nets’ strongest supporters, that makes no sense but you got to love the optimism there.
Should this team overperform expectations and see injuries affect some other teams in their conference, a play-in spot is possible. For head coach Jordi Fernández, a season of improvement should be a great sign of things to come. In what will be the team’s 60th season as a franchise, the team hopes that progress can be made.
It’s also cool that the team will host a “Swamp Dragons Night” as part of their many “Era Nights” this season.