The Brooklyn Nets have spent the first stretch of the season looking a lot like the team the rest of the league expected them to be.
That reality got harder to ignore Sunday night in Dallas, where Brooklyn closed out a back-to-back with a 130-93 loss to the Mavericks. After giving away a lead in Atlanta on Saturday, the Nets never found their footing against Dallas and were beaten by 37 points on the road.
It was another rough snapshot of where this group stands early on. The preseason optimism has already faded, and the Nets are staring at the same uncomfortable place they were projected to occupy before the year began: the lottery.
Brooklyn entered the season with a win total set at 25.5, a number that reflected the low expectations surrounding the roster. The Nets won 25 games last season, so even a small step forward would have been enough to cash the over. With additions like Julius Randle, Mikel Brown Jr. and others, there was at least a case for modest improvement.
Instead, Jordi Fernandez’s team has looked mostly unchanged, even with a different approach and a real push to compete. The results have been familiar. After 10 games, Brooklyn sits at 2-8 and appears headed for a fourth straight season without postseason basketball.
The standings still show the Nets just one game out of the play-in, but that picture is a little misleading this early. The Eastern Conference is crowded near the bottom, and that kind of closeness usually starts to sort itself out as the season goes on. Brooklyn can’t count on that gap staying manageable.
The numbers underneath the record tell the same story. The Nets are 28th in offense and 19th in defense.
Defense is supposed to be the backbone of Fernandez’s team, and being near the middle of the league on that end is at least a small positive. But it hasn’t been enough to cover for an offense that has landed in the bottom three and dragged the overall profile down to a 24th-ranked net rating.
There’s still plenty of time left, and the season is only a couple of weeks old. But so far, the Nets have looked like the team people thought they would be.
In Other News...
Nets Turnover Problem Is Putting More Than Just Wins At Risk
The early-season numbers have painted a rough picture for Brooklyn, and the turnover issue sits right at the center of it. The Nets are near the bottom of the NBA in giveaways at 18.1 per game, and the low assist totals have only made the offense look more disjointed as the losses pile up. With a 2-8 start, the margin for error has already disappeared, and every sloppy possession seems to deepen the pressure on a team trying to find any kind of rhythm.
Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. were brought in to help steady things, but the ball security concerns around the roster have become hard to ignore. When the offense is struggling to create clean looks and the bigger names are part of the problem, the conversation naturally starts to widen beyond the court. Brooklyn is already hearing from around the league on some of its larger contracts, which makes the next stretch feel less like a simple correction and more like a test of how long the front office can wait for this group to settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Frontcourt Need Could Push Them Into A Huge Sabonis Swing
Brooklyns frontcourt has been a talking point for a while, and the latest trade chatter points to a major swing if the Nets decide they need a proven anchor in the middle. Domantas Sabonis has emerged as the name to watch, with league buzz suggesting Sacramento could at least listen if the right deal materializes. For a Nets team trying to firm up its interior presence, the appeal is obvious: Sabonis is an established All-Star center who would instantly change the look of the rotation.
The intrigue is coming from Sacramento, where Sabonis role has reportedly shifted enough to make people around the league wonder how settled he feels in the current setup. Any deal would have to make sense for the Kings as well, and that is where the conversation gets complicated, with experienced pieces being floated as part of the framework. Nothing has been confirmed, but this is the kind of frontcourt possibility that can linger because it fits a need on one side and raises questions on the other. [Read more 🡒]
Day'Ron Sharpe May Have Given The Nets A New Identity
DayRon Sharpe has been doing more than cleaning up the glass for Brooklyn lately, and his latest outing hinted at a bigger shift. In a 124-121 loss to the Hawks, he put together a rare all-around night with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, a sign that his passing has become a real part of the Nets offense rather than just an occasional wrinkle.
Brooklyn still let a winnable game slip away after giving up 38 points in the fourth quarter, but Sharpes growing role as a facilitator is the kind of development that can change how this team looks going forward. For a roster searching for identity, having a big man who can rebound, score and keep the ball moving gives the Nets a different kind of pressure point to build around. [Read more 🡒]