The Brooklyn Nets are heading into the 2025-26 NBA season with the goal of winning more games than they did last season when they finished the campaign with a 20-62 record. To make it easier to achieve that goal, Brooklyn added former Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, among others, but there are still some around the league that expect the Nets to struggle to win games.
"The Brooklyn Nets will give a significant share of their playmaking responsibilities to new addition Julius Randle and rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr., neither of whom seems poised for success," Grant Hughes wrote of the Nets for Bleacher Report. While Randle is expected to handle the basketball somewhat within head coach Jordi Fernandez's offense this season, it seems that
players like Egor Demin and potentially Keon Ellis could assist in the playmaking as well.
"Randle was salary-dumped from the Minnesota Timberwolves largely because he wasn't good enough as a second option behind Anthony Edwards. Brown is bound to struggle as professional defenses key in on him," Hughes continued. "Though the Nets got good deals on role players like Keon Ellis (two years, $18 million), Day'Ron Sharpe (two years, $20 million) and Josh Minott (two years, $9 million), the supporting cast here is underwhelming."
The Nets are still in the midst of their rebuild so it's not surprising that some around the league expect them to be one of the worst teams in the NBA, but they could also exceed expectations as well. It's still early in the preseason, but the Nets have already beaten the Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers while players like Randle, Michael Porter Jr., and Demin have looked ready to go from the beginning.
Even though Brooklyn will be trying to win as many games as possible this season, the Nets have also made it clear that development of the younger players on the roster is still the name of the game. Brooklyn will be led by Porter and Randle, but the franchise's future will largely hinge on how players like Demin and Brown develop, especially if the Nets are trying to get to a point where they can compete for a playoff spot sometime in the near future.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets projected to win less than 25 games in 2025-26 NBA season
