Player development and draft position remain the Brooklyn Nets' top focuses entering year two of a rebuild. Following an eventful offseason, the team begins the 2025-26 campaign with a revamped roster. Former NBA executive Johnson Hollinger recently released his record predictions for every NBA team.
Hollinger projected the Nets to go 26-56, the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference and fourth-worst in the NBA.
“Brooklyn’s decision to use all five first-round picks on fairly similar players on draft night looks baffling, resulting in an entirely unnecessary roster crunch that forced it to jettison potentially useful players and leaving five rookies with little natural symbiosis to work out how to play with one another,” Hollinger wrote for The Athletic. “The Nets aren’t without talent. Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas both can fill it up when they get cooking, Nic Claxton is a plus defender in the middle and “young vets” such as Day’Ron Sharpe, Ziaire Williams, Haywood Highsmith and Terance Mann may be able to give them something. But the pieces fit incredibly poorly. Porter and Thomas are both blinders-on gunners, nobody else on the team can shoot, and there doesn’t appear to be a natural point guard.”
Hollinger projected the Washington Wizards (16-66), Utah Jazz (23-59) and Charlotte Hornets (25-57) to finish behind the Nets. While the former Memphis Grizzlies executive took a negative tone when discussing Brooklyn's season outlook, a 26-win campaign would exceed expectations.
The Nets won that many games last season and downgraded their roster this summer in pursuit of a top pick in the 2026 draft.
Nets enter season with rookie-heavy roster following historic 2025 draft
Rookies Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf will replace veteran point guards Dennis Schroder and D'Angelo Russell. The Nets swapped Cam Johnson, their top player last season, for Michael Porter Jr. Meanwhile, they shipped Dorian Finney-Smith out at the trade deadline and brought in Terance Mann this summer.
While playing exclusively rookie point guards will result in ugly offense, it will give Brooklyn's draft picks an opportunity to explore their skill sets.
“That [lack of point guard depth] at least should provide some opportunity for a few key youngsters to test their limits. Rookie Egor Dëmin, the most talented of the Nets’ five rookies, should get heavy on-ball reps as a “point forward” distributor,” Hollinger wrote. “Kobe Bufkin and rookie Nolan Traoré will both get chances to prove themselves as real point guards… The Nets have three other first-rounders — guard Ben Saraf, wing defender Drake Powell and ballhandling big man Danny Wolf — they’d like to get in the mix, with Saraf seeming the furthest along.
“Surely they’ll take calls on players such as Porter, Mann and Sharpe if they can convert them into draft capital. Thomas, alas, can refuse any trade after taking the qualifying offer this summer and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2026.”
