As we’ve written recently, we don’t put a lot of stock in off-season rankings and ratings, particularly those posted so close to Opening Night. After all, the real measure of a team’s off-season moves — wins and losses — are so close at hand. We’ll know soon enough exactly where things stand and said rankings and ratings will be forgotten.
Still, there have been some predictions of late that while not changing the overall belief that the Nets will be bad, they represent a bit of pundit pull-back,
particularly in ESPN’s latest rankings of team futures. It was only a few weeks ago that the worldwide leader predicted 18 wins, which would be two less than last season’s tankathon and the third worst in the franchise’s history.
On Wednesday, an ESPN insiders’ panel released its rankings of NBA futures … where each team will be in three years time. The Nets ranked 24th, up from 27th last year. Progress?
The bottom line, written by Zach Kram, described the Nets outlook this way:
[T]he Nets rank near the top of both the draft and money categories. But beyond the frontcourt pairing of Michael Porter Jr. and new Net Julius Randle, this is still a roster devoid of win-now talent, as Brooklyn is still primarily focused on the development of a half-dozen recent first-round picks. That timeline means it’s hard to expect too many wins from this team in the near term.
Dean Oliver, an ESPN consultant, suggested that history is not on the Nets side.
The Nets are top five in both money and draft for the third straight season but bottom five in players. Usually, teams in that situation are two years away from being about average or better. But given Brooklyn’s low win predictions for this season, the franchise might have actually been two years away from being two years away back in 2024.
The big long term prediction by Oliver also stings:
Nets will get bored of rebuilding and make an all-in play for a superstar during one of the next two summers. This is just the natural life cycle for Brooklyn, which sold the farm for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2013 and landed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2019.
The rankings take into account teams’ current roster, management, draft, money and market. (Oddly and without much explanation, the panel dropped Brooklyn as a market from No. 7 to No. 11. A function of the Knicks’ championship?)
Moving from the future to the present is where the insiders offer a bit of hope in a report headlined “Brooklyn Nets off-season recap and early 2026-27 season preview.” No ranking just a review but the generalized doom and gloom is somewhat leavened.
A great deal of the season preview focuses on the acquisition of Randle in what is generally seen as a salary dump. Kram sees the arrival of Randle as a short-term positive but nothing more.
Their largest outlay came from trading Claxton in a deal that brought back former All-NBA forward Randle, which should improve the team next season — because of Randle’s availability and floor-raising talent — but doesn’t do much to aid the Nets’ murky longer-term outlook.
Golliver offers a similar take.
Although Brooklyn acquired Randle in a deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 31-year-old forward isn’t talented enough to carry a contender or young enough to shepherd the Nets’ next era. Randle should help Brooklyn make progress in the standings, but plugging him in as a stopgap doesn’t qualify as a long-term plan.
However, Oliver raises some flags even for this season, citing analytics, his specialty.
Randle’s decline in the second half of last season was plain to see. He posted plus-2.2 net points per 100 possessions in the first half of the season, just 0.0 in the second half, along with 10 negative games out of 13 in the playoffs. Such a sudden drop-off was probably either due to injury or the situation in Minnesota demotivating him. However, he should be solid and make the Nets a bit more competitive this season.
Injury? Randle did play 79 games.
Surprisingly, there’s little in the season preview about either Egor Demin or Mikel Brown Jr. which considering their age (20) and likely big role is a bit mystifying. Meanwhile, over at the mother ship, SB Nation, Ricky O’Donnell offers positives about both lottery picks and the man who will coach them, Jordi Fernandez
He ranks the Nets 13th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams, but thinks the naysayers have taken things too far (and like the ESPN panel, thinks the signing of Day’Ron Sharpe was an underrated move by Sean Marks & co.)
His assessment is in large part based on confidence in Fernandez.
I trust the Nets to beat their very low expectations coming into the season … provided they don’t trade Michael Porter Jr. before opening night. Porter enjoyed a career-year under Jordi Fernandez in Brooklyn last season one year after Cam Johnson enjoyed similar success.
Fernandez is one of the best young coaches in the game, and he has a little more talent to work with this season with the arrival of Julius Randle. Add in a potential sophomore leap from Egor Demin, a possible center upgrade with Day’ron Sharpe taking over for Nic Claxton, and the arrival of rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr., and I like Brooklyn more than the early prognostications. Fernandez will get the most out of this group as long as it doesn’t sell off parts.
Again, we will know in a little more than a month how the pundits’ views turn out. Not to mention the players own views. Ben Saraf is on the record as saying he and his teammates expect to make the playoffs and Porter Jr. thinks 50 is good round number.
