Brooklyn’s offseason left fans with a lot to sort through, and the result is a roster that feels built for constant stock watch. Some names are rising fast, some are easy sells, and a few sit right in the middle as September nears and the 2026-27 season comes into focus.
The loudest buzz has followed Egor Dёmin all summer. He was everywhere - making TikToks around New York City, posting workout clips and even teaming up with rookie Mikel Brown Jr. to help reveal Brooklyn’s schedule. The off-court attention matched the on-court signs in Summer League, where Dёmin flashed a more complete game.
A big part of that was physical. After putting on weight, the Russian sharpshooter looked more comfortable finishing inside the paint instead of leaning almost entirely on the smooth three-point shot.
That matters because Brooklyn may be setting him up for a bigger role next to Brown. Dёmin averaged 10.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists as a rookie, and a year-two jump feels very much in play.
The backcourt picture only strengthens that case. Brooklyn drafted four guards among its five 2025 picks, and the youth movement should be front and center for Jordi Fernández.
Brown, Dёmin and Nolan Traoré are all positioned for heavy minutes, while newcomer Keon Ellis looks like a player who can get his career back on track as a 3&D guard. Drake Powell is part of that same conversation too, with a similar kind of upside.
That leaves Terance Mann as the clear sell. The 29-year-old got the veteran bump last season and started 51 games, but the production never screamed indispensable.
His efficiency was fine, but the bigger issue is what he represents in this setup: a player who took minutes from the younger group. With $31.5 million owed over the next two years, Mann looks like the odd man out.
He could still stick in the rotation, but he has plenty to prove, and it’s hard to picture him anywhere but near the end of the bench.
In the frontcourt, Day'Ron Sharpe is the obvious buy. With Nic Claxton gone to Chicago, the 24-year-old now has the starting center job locked down.
Sharpe has improved every season, and Brooklyn has kept giving him more responsibility because he’s handled his role well. In 2025-26, he averaged 8.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 18.7 minutes per game.
That production could also draw attention from around the league, but Sharpe still fits Brooklyn’s timeline. The Nets clearly want more from the 6-foot-10 big man, and he signed a two-year, $20 million deal over the summer.
Then there’s Julius Randle, who sits in that tricky middle ground between buy and hold. Timberwolves fans weren’t exactly eager to keep his stock by the end of his time in Minnesota, but Brooklyn gives him a different kind of reset. The setup even carries a faint echo of his best Knicks stretch, when he became the top option in 2021 while plenty of people were doubting New York.
The Nets are not expected to be in the postseason hunt this season, so the pressure on Randle won’t look the same. Still, he’ll need to figure out how to share the floor with Michael Porter Jr., who is coming off a career year and wants to post similar numbers with a rebuilding team. The message on Randle is simple: don’t go all in, but don’t bail out too early either.
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The one concern this summer was availability, since Traore missed summer league after a knee scope. Even so, general manager Sean Marks said he is expected to be ready for training camp, which keeps the focus on what kind of leap Brooklyn might be getting once the season begins. For a young guard still carving out his place, the next step feels less about flashes and more about whether the work he put in can show up when the games count. [Read more 🡒]