Bleacher Report’s latest season projection leaves the Nets in a pretty harsh spot.
After the NBA schedule release, the outlet pegged Brooklyn for a 22-60 finish, which would be only two wins better than last season’s 20-62 record. That number is hard to square with how much the roster has changed since then.
The biggest swing came with the addition of six-time All-Star Julius Randle. He gives Brooklyn a proven scoring threat and a player who has spent years handling major minutes for playoff teams. The Nets also brought in Keon Ellis and Moritz Wagner, two veteran rotation pieces who may not transform the franchise, but should add depth and experience where it matters.
And that’s before even getting to the young core, which should keep growing.
Egor Dëmin is heading into his second NBA season after posting 10.3 points and 3.3 assists per game as a rookie. Nolan Traoré and Danny Wolf are also in position to take another step, and Brooklyn added another possible long-term piece with sixth overall pick Mikel Brown Jr.
That’s a much different group than the one that scraped together 20 wins a year ago.
To be clear, the Eastern Conference is tougher now. There are fewer soft spots, and Brooklyn will have to navigate a league full of teams that upgraded in their own ways. That absolutely belongs in any record projection.
Still, the Nets aren’t the same team they were last season, and that’s why the 22-win prediction feels so light.
The comparison points on Bleacher Report’s list make it stand out even more. Memphis is projected to go 31-51, nine wins better than Brooklyn, even though the Nets can make a case for having the more complete roster on paper.
The Grizzlies do have plenty of young talent, including No. 1 overall pick Cameron Boozer, and they could surprise people. But nine wins is a big gap.
Sacramento is another curious one. Bleacher Report has the Kings at 20-62, which would leave Brooklyn just two games ahead despite the Nets making the more active offseason moves.
That’s the heart of the argument here. Brooklyn doesn’t need to be a playoff team for 22 wins to look too low.
It doesn’t even need to push for the Play-In Tournament. There are plenty of realistic outcomes where the Nets are still near the bottom of the East.
But after adding Randle, Ellis and Wagner, and with another year of development for several key young players, going from 20 wins to only 22 feels like underselling the progress. If Brooklyn ends up at 22-60, it should be because the conference is brutal and the roster still hasn’t fully clicked - not because this team looks like the same one that won 20 games last season.
In Other News...
Mikel Brown Jr. Is Giving Nets Fans Real Reason To Believe
For a Nets franchise still looking to reconnect with the kind of optimism that once came more naturally, Mikel Brown Jr. offered a promising glimpse in Summer League. Brooklyns highest draft pick since the move from New Jersey produced 15.0 points and 4.0 assists, enough to give the organization a little more confidence that it may have found a guard worth building around. Projected to be the starting point guard for the 2026-27 season, Brown arrives with the kind of profile that can steady a rebuilding team if the growth keeps coming.
Sean Marks has already pointed to Browns basketball IQ, versatility and athleticism as traits that can matter right away, and that matters for a Nets team trying to piece together its next core. The performance did not answer every question, of course, but it did give fans something real to attach to beyond draft-night hope. What Brown still has to show is how all of that translates once the games start counting for real, when the spotlight gets brighter and the expectations grow louder. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Rookie Mikel Brown Jr. Addresses The Concern Fans Still Had
Mikel Brown Jr. arrived in Brooklyn with plenty of expectations for a No. 6 pick, and the Nets are counting on him to be part of the backcourt picture right away alongside Egor Demin. After a freshman season at Louisville was interrupted by a back injury, Brown had already given the team reason for encouragement by turning in a strong Summer League showing, the kind that suggested his game and confidence were both trending in the right direction.
The lingering question for fans was always about the back, and Brown has done enough since then to calm some of that concern as the Nets move toward preseason and the regular season. What remains to be seen is how smoothly that recovery translates once the games start to matter, especially for a young guard being asked to handle a meaningful role early in his NBA career. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Suddenly Have More To Prove Than Vegas Expects
The Nets have spent the offseason trying to change the conversation, adding new pieces like Julius Randle and Mikel Brown Jr. as they look to steady a roster that has not given them much reason for optimism in recent years. The goal is clear enough: get better now, develop as they go and build toward a playoff return by 2027.
Still, the outside market has not moved much. Preseason projections have Brooklyn sitting at 24.5 wins, a number that suggests the league is waiting to see proof before buying into the upgrade. For a team with more talent on paper and a mandate to develop, that gap between expectation and belief is where the season will start to matter. [Read more 🡒]