The Brooklyn Nets made plenty of moves this offseason, and the roster looks better because of it. Still, ESPN’s latest win projections have them buried near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and, in fact, at the very bottom of the league.
On Monday, ESPN’s group of NBA Insiders released record predictions for every team, and Brooklyn came in at 18-64. The insiders noted, "The Nets ... are also here, but Brooklyn did add former All-NBA forward Julius Randle to help provide legitimacy to its rebuild,".
That number feels awfully harsh for a team that added real talent over the summer.
Randle gives Brooklyn a proven scorer and playmaker who has logged plenty of playoff minutes. Last season, he put up 21.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 48.1 percent from the field. He should also mesh well with Michael Porter Jr., whose game is built in a very different way on the offensive end.
Porter is coming off the best season of his career, when he emerged as one of the NBA’s most dangerous perimeter forwards. Randle’s passing should help create cleaner off-ball chances for Porter and free him up for more efficient looks from the outside.
Brooklyn also used the draft to shore up a thin frontcourt and add Mikel Brown Jr., who is expected to be the team’s lead guard of the future. Brown showed off explosive scoring ability at Louisville and also flashed defensive upside thanks to his size and length.
The pairing with second-year guard Egor Dëmin is another intriguing part of the roster. Dëmin was one of the standouts of Summer League, averaging 21 points, 3.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Both he and Brown can handle the ball, pass, play on the perimeter and hit 3-pointers, giving the Nets more spacing and more options off the bench.
There’s depth beyond that, too. Keon Ellis and Moritz Wagner were solid free-agent additions for a bench group that needed experience and stability.
Wagner, a high-energy big man, signed a two-year, $19 million deal and can bring both physicality and offense. Ellis has made 40.7 percent of his career 3-pointers and brings the kind of perimeter defense that can disrupt opposing guards and wings.
That depth is part of what Brooklyn’s staff has been highlighting this summer. At NBA Summer League, one Nets assistant coach told Spotrac’s Keith Smith, "What we’re excited about is the depth of legitimate NBA rotation players and potential rotation players we have now," a Nets assistant coach told Spotrac's Keith Smith.
"Not to speak ill of last year’s team, but we were down to rookies and non-NBA-level players by the end of the year. This year, we’ve got depth and the kids are improving too."
In Other News...
Cam Whitmore Suddenly Feels Like A Nets Fit To Watch
Cam Whitmores path has quickly turned uncertain after Cleveland acquired him in a multi-team trade, only for the Cavaliers to reportedly weigh whether to waive and stretch his contract. For a young wing with real upside, that kind of roster calculus can be harsh, but it also opens the door for a team that still has room to think more about talent than fit on paper.
The Nets are one of the clubs worth watching if Whitmore does become available. Brooklyn has a clear need for young scoring help on the wing, and Whitmores profile lines up with the kind of upside swing that makes sense for a team still sorting out its long-term core. Charlotte is another possible landing spot, but from Brooklyns perspective, this is exactly the sort of opportunity that can go from theoretical to very real in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Still Face One Brutal Question After A Quiet Offseason
The Nets spent the offseason piecing together a new look, adding Julius Randle in a trade, signing Keon Ellis and Moe Wagner, and using the draft to bring in Mikel Brown Jr., Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau. After two seasons that produced a combined 118 losses, Brooklyn is betting that a mix of veterans such as Randle and Michael Porter Jr. and a handful of young prospects can at least move the group toward respectability.
Still, the real test is less about the names on the roster and more about what happens when the games start to count. Brooklyn opens preseason Oct. 6 against the Hornets, then gets Charlotte again in the home opener on Oct. 21, and those early dates should offer the first real clues about whether this quiet reset has enough structure to hold up once the schedule tightens. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Fans Are Split On What This Season Really Means
The Nets head into the new season carrying the kind of weight that comes with a long rebuild and a fan base that has learned to read between the lines. After finishing with 20 wins and missing the postseason again, Brooklyn still has Joe Tsai and Sean Marks preaching patience, even as the roster has been reshaped with names like Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. and the outside world keeps trying to assign a timetable to the turnaround.
There is some real intrigue here, because the roster has enough recognizable talent to make a leap feel possible, but not enough certainty to quiet the doubts. Oddsmakers have set the bar around 24.5 wins, which says plenty about how the league views the Nets right now, and it leaves Brooklyn stuck in the middle of two different conversations: whether this is the start of something more serious, or just another season of waiting for the rebuild to show its hand. [Read more 🡒]