The Brooklyn Nets are in the midst of a rebuild that they hope will end sooner than later given that the team has been starving for a championship for quite some time at this point. Brooklyn has had an in-city rivalry with the New York Knicks since the Nets moved to New York City over a decade ago and some are wondering if they can rebuild as the Knicks thrive.
"It would be easy to say the Nets aren't paying attention to what's happening in Manhattan, but nobody would believe that. For years, the Nets' biggest advantage was that the Knicks hadn't found their way to contention, which is now no longer the case," Vincent Goodwill wrote on the Nets for ESPN. To Goodwill's point, the Nets and its fanbase have no choice but to acknowledge that the Knicks are league
champions heading into this season.
"[Michael] Porter [Jr.] is in the last year of his deal and was productive before being shut down in the last month of the season as the Nets angled for better draft positioning," Goodwill continued. "The Nets held on to each of their first-round picks from 2025, throwing them into the deep end, and hopefully those swings will start showing promise starting this season."
Heading into the 2026-27 NBA season, the Knicks are once again expected to be one of the best teams in the league while the Nets are projected to be one of the worst. As is the case with rebuilding teams, Brooklyn is likely not as concerned with wins and losses as they are with how many of the young players get better and if veterans like Porter and Julius Randle are able to raise the floor of the roster.
More to the point, the Nets will be watching the development of players like Egor Demin, Mikel Brown Jr., and Noah Clowney, among others, as the franchise tries to young cornerstones to build around. Brooklyn owner Joe Tsai has spoken on how the Knicks factor into the Nets' rebuild, but he made it clear that the organization will do what's best, not necessarily what gets people to stop talking about the Knicks.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Will the Nets' rebuild take the Knicks into consideration next season?
