The Brooklyn Nets’ 2026-27 season will open with a familiar opponent and a pair of fresh faces that could set the tone for the whole year.
For the second straight season, Brooklyn starts against the Charlotte Hornets, this time at Barclays Center. The Nets have struggled badly in openers, going 1-12 in their last 13. Their most recent win to begin a season came in Kevin Durant’s Nets debut on Dec. 22, 2020, a 125-99 rout of the Golden State Warriors in an empty Barclays Center because of COVID-19.
This opener will bring two debuts worth watching. No. 6 pick Mikel Brown Jr. is set to launch his NBA career, and he arrives as the highest draft selection of the Brooklyn era.
Julius Randle will also wear black-and-white for the first time after his surprise trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Brown, Randle and Egor Demin all in the mix, Barclays Center should have no trouble getting loud.
The first Knicks meeting gives the schedule another early jolt. This will be the opening game of four between Brooklyn and New York, and it also marks the Nets’ first visit to Madison Square Garden since the Knicks won the championship.
Randle’s return to MSG will draw plenty of attention after his five-year run with the Knicks, where he helped lift the franchise from the NBA’s basement to a playoff team. Now he’s the most accomplished player on a rebuilding Nets roster trying to follow a similar path.
That matchup comes with extra fatigue attached. Brooklyn will be on the second night of a back-to-back, and that’s a theme for the rivalry: three of the four meetings with the Knicks come with the Nets in that same spot. The schedule is packed with them, too, as Brooklyn has an NBA-high 16 back-to-backs.
There’s also a home date with a star-heavy Philadelphia group that will test how the Barclays crowd reacts to the new-look 76ers. LeBron James, Paul George and the Philadelphia 76ers are coming to Brooklyn for the first time, and the building is expected to have plenty of Philadelphia fans inside it. The bigger question is whether the young Nets can keep pace.
Two former Nets will get their own spotlight games. Nic Claxton returns to Barclays Center after his seven-year run ended this summer, with Brooklyn sending him to the Bulls as part of the Randle trade.
That move opened the door for Day’Ron Sharpe, who had already outplayed Claxton over the last two seasons, to take over as the starting center. Their first head-to-head meeting should be one fans circle.
Randle’s trip back to Minnesota carries its own edge. The Timberwolves salary-dumped him to Brooklyn this offseason, and they had shopped him in trade talks for Giannis Antetokounmpo midway through last season.
That stretch came before a dip in Randle’s production in the second half of the regular season and the playoffs. When the Nets visit Target Center, he’ll have a national stage to answer back, with the game airing on NBC and Peacock.
It’s one of just two nationally televised games on Brooklyn’s schedule.
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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 🡒]