For most of last season, the Brooklyn Nets looked exactly like what they were: a young team quietly sorting out which guys were actually going to stick around for the next stage. They finished 20-62, dead last in the East at 13th, ranked bottom of the league offensively at 108.7 points per 100 possessions, and sat 26th on defense. Their -10.3 net rating was the second-worst mark in the entire NBA. Not exactly a fun watch, and I don't think anyone in Brooklyn was pretending otherwise.
But then this summer happened, and suddenly things got a lot more interesting than a 20-win season had any right to promise. Michael Porter Jr . is still around after putting together easily the best individual year of his career, and now he's got Julius Randle alongside him thanks to Brooklyn's involvement in that four-team LaMelo Ball trade.
The Nets sent out Nic Claxton to the Bulls , moved the No. 33 pick to Minnesota, and came back with Randle plus the No. 28 pick, Joshua Jefferson. On top of that, they drafted Mikel Brown Jr. sixth overall, signed Keon Ellis and Moritz Wagner, and brought back both Day'Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott on new deals.
That's a genuinely different roster than the one that lost 62 games, and I want to be careful not to get carried away after one busy summer, because it still isn't a playoff team by any stretch. The East, on top of all that, is a lot tougher than it was a year ago: the 10th-seeded Heat needed 43 wins just to sniff the Play-In last season, and Brooklyn finished 23 games behind them. That's the gap we're talking about closing here.
Still, I don't get the sense the Nets are walking into 2026-27 hoping to lose 60 games again. There's real scoring on this roster now, there are young guards genuinely worth developing, and, for the first time, not being a 3-worst team in the league is the best path to landing the No. 1 overall pick in the next Draft.
The starting lineup, honestly, could be a lot of fun if Brooklyn finds the chemistry to put all of their pieces together.
Point Guard – Mikel Brown Jr.
Shooting Guard – Egor Demin
Small Forward – Michael Porter Jr.
Power Forward – Julius Randle
Center – Danny Wolf
There's some talk about him coming off the bench at first, but I'd start Mikel Brown Jr. right away, no hesitation. The Nets didn't use the No. 6 pick on him just so he could watch half the season from the bench, and this is exactly the kind of season where a team can afford to let a rookie point guard go make his mistakes in real time.
Brown averaged 18.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.2 steals at Louisville, shooting 41.0% from the field, 34.4% from three, and 84.4% at the line. He's far from a finished product, but that blend of size, burst, pull-up shooting, and passing vision is exactly why he went that high.
At 6-foot-5, Brown also gives Brooklyn something pretty unusual next to Egor Demin . Instead of trying to hide one undersized guard, the Nets can just run two big, young ball-handlers together: Demin at 6-foot-8, Brown at 6-foot-5, both capable of initiating offense whenever the other needs a breather.
Demin's rookie year, for what it's worth, was actually a lot more promising than the ugly 20-win record made it look from the outside. He averaged 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.3 assists across 52 games, started 45 of them, and shot 38.5% from three on a healthy 6.2 attempts a night. His overall field goal percentage, 39.9%, still needs real work, but I care far more about that three-point number: with legitimate shooting doubts attached to him, he immediately knocked down 124 threes as a teenager
Everything gets considerably easier once Michael Porter Jr. enters the picture, too. Porter finally got real freedom last season instead of playing third fiddle, and he answered with 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists across 52 games, shooting 46.3% from the field, 36.3% from a massive 9.3 three-point attempts per game, and 85.9% from the line.
That's the highest scoring average of his entire career, by six full points. The catch, as it always seems to be with Porter, was health: a hamstring injury ended his season prematurely in April, and for a player with his medical history, that's impossible to just wave off, especially now that Brooklyn needs him to be one of two primary scorers rather than just another shooter drifting around a superstar.
Then there's Julius Randle, which is probably the single move that tells you the Nets aren't planning on tanking through another season. Randle averaged 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists across 79 games for Minnesota last year, shooting 48.1% from the field and 31.5% from three. His playoff run wasn't great as the Wolves went out in the second round, but he's still a three-time All-Star who gives the Nets another guy capable of actually creating something out of a dying possession.
I like the Randle-Porter pairing on offense more than I expected to, if I'm honest. Porter doesn't need the ball in his hands for long stretches (Randle does), and that difference should let the Nets use Randle as a secondary creator without turning every trip down the floor into two scorers waiting their turn. Randle can operate from the elbow, post up smaller forwards, find cutters, while Porter just moves around him and Brown attacks off whatever mismatch they can create.
Defense, unsurprisingly, is a different conversation entirely. Randle and Porter aren't exactly improving a defense that ranked 26th in the league by themselves, which is exactly why the center spot matters so much here.
I'd give Danny Wolf the first crack at it. His rookie year was messy but genuinely interesting: 8.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists across 57 games on 40.5% shooting from the field and 32.2% from three. At 6-foot-11 and 250 pounds, he can put the ball on the floor and has already flashed some of the passing that made him such a strange, fascinating prospect coming out of Michigan.
The efficiency wasn't pretty, and he still has to prove he can hold up defensively against starting NBA centers, but this whole season should really just be about finding out what he actually is. Claxton's gone, the door is wide open, and Wolf doesn't need fifteen shots a night, but has to rebound better, avoid living in foul trouble, keep the ball moving, and hopefully bring that three-point number up into the mid-30s.
Point Guards – Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf
Shooting Guards – Terance Mann, Drake Powell
Small Forwards – Keon Ellis, Josh Minott
Power Forwards – Noah Clowney, Joshua Jefferson, Tyler Bilodeau, Chaney Johnson
Centers – Day'Ron Sharpe, Moritz Wagner
This is where things get a little crowded, mostly because Brooklyn has stockpiled way more promising young players than it has actual available minutes.
Nolan Traore should get the first look as the backup point guard, if only because Brown himself is still a rookie feeling his way through the league. Traore averaged 8.9 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists last season, but shot just 38.0% from the field and 31.8% from three, and his 1.65 assist-to-turnover ratio wasn't exactly reassuring either.
Terance Mann feels like the steady veteran presence next to him. He averaged 7.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists while shooting 45.7% from the field and 36.3% from three across 63 games last year, numbers that won't excite anybody, but that's sort of the entire point of his game. He isn't going to hijack possessions or demand touches; he can guard multiple spots on the floor, and coach Jordi Fernandez has a guy who already knows precisely what his job is on this team.
Keon Ellis is another veteran-ish piece I really like in this mix. He only averaged 6.7 points last season split between Sacramento and Cleveland, but he shot 44.0% from the field and 36.3% from three over 72 games, and more importantly, he's already built a real reputation as a strong perimeter defender (plus he's a career 40.7% three-point shooter).
On a team where Brown, Demin, Porter, and Randle are soaking up most of the offensive touches, Ellis doesn't need to do anything complicated. Guard the other team's guards, knock down open looks, and don't turn the ball over. Brooklyn handed him a two-year deal for exactly that job description, nothing more.
Noah Clowney might be carrying the most pressure of anybody on this bench this season. He averaged 12.3 points and 4.1 rebounds a year ago, but shot just 39.6% from the field and 32.9% from three. He's still only 22, though, and his path to real minutes is pretty clear: if Wolf struggles, Brooklyn can shuffle Randle or Clowney around the frontcourt, and if Randle misses time for any reason, Clowney suddenly gets a much bigger runway.
Day'Ron Sharpe might genuinely be the most solid center on this whole roster right now. He averaged 8.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in only 18.7 minutes a night while shooting a ridiculous 60.1% from the field, and he grabbed 2.8 offensive rebounds a game in that limited window.
Brooklyn rewarded him with a two-year, $20.0 million contract over the summer, and honestly, it wouldn't shock me at all if Sharpe ends up logging more center minutes than Wolf across the full season. Wolf has the higher offensive ceiling as a shooter and passer, but Sharpe already knows exactly how to survive physically at the NBA level.
Then there's the third string, where Brooklyn has stashed yet another wave of young players worth testing out. Ben Saraf averaged 7.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 44 games as a rookie. His 21.1% shooting from three was genuinely brutal, but he's another 6-foot-6 ball-handler who won't even turn 21 until next April. He'll probably spend plenty of nights outside the rotation unless an injury opens a door, but I wouldn't bury him after one shaky season either.
Drake Powell is in an even tougher spot , and I'd pencil him in as the third-string shooting guard heading into camp. He played 63 games last year, averaging 6.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 1.4 assists, but shot only 40.2% from the field and 28.0% from three. He's only 20, was a first-round pick barely a year ago, and has the physical tools to be an elite defender, but right now, he's going to have to prove he deserves to jump someone ahead of him.
Josh Minott has a much easier case for minutes. He only averaged 7.4 points overall last season, but once he landed in Brooklyn, he put up 10.8 points across 16 games while shooting 49.1% from the field and 39.5% from three. The Nets clearly liked what they saw, bringing him back on a two-year, $9.0 million deal. At 6-foot-8, Minott can slide between either forward spot and should be one of the first names called whenever this team needs energy or defense.
Joshua Jefferson might end up being one of the more fun rookies on this whole roster. The No. 28 pick averaged 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 1.6 steals at Iowa State while shooting 47.0% from the field and 35.0% from three, earning second-team All-America honors along the way. I have no idea how many minutes are realistically available for him right away, but that level of playmaking at 6-foot-9 is absolutely worth keeping.
Moritz Wagner rounds things out as another veteran center option after signing his own two-year deal, having averaged 6.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 36 games last season. He should be a huge presence as the more experienced offensive big man behind Wolf and Sharpe.
And then there's Tyler Bilodeau and Chaney Johnson, two names I wouldn't completely write off, even though minutes are hard to find. Bilodeau averaged 17.6 points and 5.6 rebounds at UCLA while shooting a wild 46.4% from three on 4.5 attempts a game. Brooklyn took him at No. 43, and shooting that well at 6-foot-8 gives him at least one obvious road into the league.
Johnson already got a small NBA taste last season with his two-way deal, averaging 8.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists across 17 appearances on 54.3% shooting. He'll probably spend most of his time down in the G League, but he showed enough that Brooklyn shouldn't just forget about him.
This roster is honestly almost overcrowded with developmental prospects, but for a team in the middle of a rebuild, that's a pretty good problem to have. Somebody in that mix is going to separate themselves from the pack.
The biggest strength here is simply that there's finally enough offensive talent on this roster to actually make life easier for the young guys, rather than leaving them to fend for themselves the way last year's team so often did. Porter Jr. and Randle are two proven 20-point scorers landing on a team that finished dead last in the entire NBA at just 105.9 points per game a season ago, and that shift alone should make this offense function on a completely different level.
The other real positive is just how many different types of players Jordi Fernandez now has at his disposal around those two. Ellis and Mann can slide across multiple positions defensively, Clowney offers a mobile 6-foot-10 forward who can run the floor, and Sharpe is a bruising rebounder coming off career highs in points and rebounds. For the first time in a while, there are actual NBA rotation players surrounding the kids, something this roster simply didn't have last season.
Then there's the upside sitting with Mikel Brown Jr., which honestly might be the most exciting part of this whole thing. The No. 6 pick already flashed encouraging signs in Summer League, putting up 16.7 points and 4.0 assists in only 22.5 minutes a night. The nice thing is Brooklyn doesn't need him to become their best player immediately, which should let Brown develop as a playmaker first.
Depth rounds out the picture nicely too. Fernandez has a genuinely wide range of combinations to play with depending on matchup or need. The Nets still aren't loaded with stars by any stretch, but between the added size, the young legs, the defensive options, and just enough steady veterans mixed in, they're no longer a roster forced to dump every responsibility onto a locker room full of 20-year-olds.
The main issue, and it's not a small one, is that this team still doesn't have a true franchise player. Porter is a very good scorer and Randle is a former All-Star in his own right, but neither one should be mistaken for the kind of No. 1 option capable of carrying a playoff offense on his back.
Brown could eventually grow into that role, sure, but he's 20 years old and hasn't played a single NBA regular-season minute yet, so expecting star-level efficiency right out of the gate would be getting way ahead of ourselves. Brooklyn still has to figure out who its long-term offensive engine actually is, and that answer probably isn't coming this season.
Shooting could turn into a real issue depending on the lineups. Randle knocked down only 31.5% of his threes last year, Brown shot 34.4% in college, and Sharpe isn't exactly a floor-spacer at center. Lean on too many combinations without Porter or another legitimate shooter on the floor, and defenses are going to pack the paint and make things considerably harder on Brown, Randle, Traore, and Saraf whenever they try to attack downhill.
There's also just a staggering amount of inexperience sitting in this backcourt, which is worth noticing. Brown is a rookie, while Traore, Saraf, and Powell are only heading into their second seasons. Young guards turn the ball over, get exposed on switches, become defensive targets, and generally need time before they can reliably control an NBA game from start to finish. That matters a lot more for a Nets team that already turned the ball over 15.8 times a game last season, 29th in the entire league.
Defense is probably the other big worry hanging over this group. Brooklyn finished 26th in defensive rating at 119.0 a year ago, and losing Nic Claxton strips away their best proven interior defender in the process. Ellis should help out on the perimeter, Clowney has some real defensive upside, and Sharpe brings strength and rebounding to the table, but there's no clear elite anchor protecting the rim.
This is where I want to pump the brakes a little. There's a version of this Nets team that wins somewhere around 35 games and hangs around the fringes of the Play-In race deep into March, so I can absolutely picture that happening. Jumping from 20 wins all the way to 40-plus, though, is a much bigger leap than the offseason headlines might suggest.
The defense is what worries me for that scenario, though. Claxton is gone, and like it or not, he was still Brooklyn's best defensive asset. Ellis, Mann, Minott, and maybe Powell can chip in around the perimeter, but this team will still have some genuinely ugly defensive stretches, and if Wolf and Randle keep getting hunted in pick-and-roll, don't be shocked if Brooklyn leans more heavily on Sharpe to cover that gap.
Brooklyn was never going to finish an entire rebuild in one summer. There's still a ton of development that needs to happen here, even with Porter and Randle providing enough veteran scoring punch to keep this team from sliding into another genuinely miserable year. So yes, the Nets can absolutely hang around the edges of the Play-In conversation this season. I just wouldn't go expecting them to actually claim one of those spots yet.
What matters more, really, is that for the first time in a good while, Brooklyn gets to develop its young players and try to win games without those two goals actively fighting each other. If Brown looks like a genuine starting point guard and one or two of these other kids pop the way the front office is hoping, this season will be positive, even if the final record is still one of the worst in the league.
And coming off 20-62, I think they don't have much to lose regardless.
