The Brooklyn Nets are heading into this season with a roster that feels like it’s still searching for its shape.
That’s been the story for a while. After a brief run as a title contender in the early 2020s, Brooklyn has spent the last few seasons bouncing between mediocre basketball and bad lottery fortune.
The rebuild has been underway since 2024, but losing hasn’t exactly paid off the way teams usually hope it will. The Nets slipped in the lottery in back-to-back years, and with the NBA’s latest draft reform making tanking less rewarding, the old incentive structure is gone.
So Brooklyn went shopping for veterans this summer, bringing in Julius Randle, Moritz Wagner and Keon Ellis. Those additions should help stabilize the floor. The bigger issue is how much they actually move the needle.
That’s where the identity question comes in.
Jordi Fernández has to figure out how to fit Randle alongside Michael Porter Jr., another high-usage forward who likes the ball in his hands. The obvious question is whether those two can really coexist for long, or whether Brooklyn ends up making a move before this season’s trade deadline.
There’s also the matter of the young backcourt. Egor Dёmin and Mikel Brown Jr. are supposed to be part of the future, and on paper the two guards should work well together. But development gets complicated when the frontcourt also needs touches and the offense has to be built around so many competing priorities.
Porter, at least, gave Brooklyn plenty to like last season. He put up a career-best 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 46-36-86, and even on a bad Nets team he drew real All-Star buzz.
Still, his style didn’t exactly help the younger players grow. Maybe that was about talent.
Maybe it was about fit. But Porter’s shoot-first approach didn’t do much to make life easier for Dёmin or the four first-round rookies from last season.
And none of this is necessarily permanent. Porter’s contract situation hangs over everything, with one year and $40.8 million left on his current deal. Brooklyn can extend him and keep him locked in for the full season, or it can explore the trade market.
Randle’s situation is different, since he isn’t eligible for an extension right now. Even so, the Nets could still decide to move him by the February deadline.
That leaves Fernández with a choice that could define the season: stick with the selfless, fast-paced, pass-heavy style he talked about when he was hired, or lean into Porter and Randle, slow things down, and hope the scoring translates into wins.
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The Nets full 2026-27 schedule gives fans an early look at just how much attention this group could draw, starting with a home opener against the Charlotte Hornets. Brooklyn will also open a new chapter with No. 6 pick Mikel Brown Jr. joining the roster and Julius Randle arriving after the trade from Minnesota, two additions that should make the first weeks of the season feel different right away.
There are plenty of dates for the Barclays Center crowd to circle beyond the opener, too, with four meetings against the Knicks and another matchup against Philadelphia on the slate. One of the most intriguing stops comes at Target Center, where the Wolves will host Brooklyn in a game that should carry extra meaning given the trade that sent Randle to the Nets. [Read more 🡒]
Julius Randle Has Nets Fans Debating How Far This Team Can Go
Julius Randles arrival has given Nets fans plenty to think about as the East reshuffles around them. With star movement sending big names to Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, Indiana and Miami, Brooklyn suddenly looks like one of the teams whose ceiling is getting debated in real time rather than guessed at from a distance.
A recent fan poll only added to the conversation, since the question is no longer whether the Nets are relevant, but how far they can push in a conference that has changed quickly this offseason. Randle gives the roster a different kind of weight, and now the discussion around Brooklyn is turning from the move itself to the bigger question it created about the win total and what kind of season might be waiting. [Read more 🡒]