The Brooklyn Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the team as much as possible after a 2025-26 campaign where they finished with a 20-62 record. Brooklyn made various moves over the course of this summer to put themselves in a position to have a better season, but the majority of the fanbase believes the team will still be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
In a poll recently conducted on NetsDaily, 58% of the respondents believe that the Nets will finished this upcoming season as a bottom-5 seed despite the moves they made this offseason. Moving forward, 21% of the voters say that the team will finish as a seventh or eighth seed, 15% believe in Brooklyn ending the regular season as a ninth or 10th seed, and
only 6% of the voters say that the Nets will finish with a top-6 record in the conference.
Once the Nets traded for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle in the early days of free-agency, it became clear that they were trying to win more games, especially with them not owning their own first-round pick next year. In addition to Randle, Brooklyn added guard Keon Ellis and center Moritz Wagner in free-agency while re-signing center Day'Ron Sharpe and forward Josh Minott.
Along the way, the Nets lost center Nic Claxton to the Chicago Bulls (in the deal that brought Randle to the Nets) and forward Ziaire Williams to the Los Angeles Lakers (in free-agency). In the 2026 NBA Draft, Brooklyn selected Louisville guard Mikel Brown Jr. with the No. 6 overall pick before taking forwards Joshua Jefferson (No. 28) and Tyler Bilodeau (No. 43).
Before Nets training camp begins at the end of this month, it seems that most pundits and outlets around the league believe that Brooklyn will finish this season with more than 20 wins, which would be an improvement from last season. However, with the East getting tougher thanks to LeBron James signing with the Philadelphia 76ers and Kawhi Leonard being traded to the Toronto Raptors, it seems that Nets fans are not too optimistic about Brooklyn's chances to make a run.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: 58% of Nets fans say team will be bottom-5 seed in NBA East this year
