You'll rarely hear an NBA owner, front office executive or coach admit to tanking. Nets owner Joe Tsai came close during a recent appearance at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.
“Well, I have to say that we’re in a rebuilding year,” Tsai said. “We spent all of our [2025] picks — we had five first-round draft picks this past summer… We have one pick in 2026, and we hope to get a good pick. So you can predict what kind of strategy we will use for this season. But we have a very young team.”
With tanking a taboo subject for NBA teams, Tsai's comments caught the attention of fans and media. On Sunday, Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez was asked about his owner's take on Brooklyn's strategy this season.
“He says he wants a good draft pick because no matter where we pick, our front office is so good that we're gonna pick a very good player,” Fernandez said. “And it's been proven with Noah Clowney, Jalen [Wilson], I mean, all these guys, our five guys we picked this year. He believes in the front office, and then we're gonna develop those guys. So wherever we pick, that's why he's excited, because we're gonna pick right.”
Despite Fernandez's deflection of the tanking narrative surrounding Brooklyn, Tsai's comments are a sign of things to come.
Will the Nets set themselves up for a top draft pick this season?
The Nets suffered a disappointing draft fate after last year's tanking season. General Manager Sean Marks dealt four first-round picks to the Houston Rockets last summer to reacquire Brooklyn's 2025 and 2026 first-rounders. Given that steep price, many within NBA circles expected the Nets to go all-out on a tank to maximize their 2025 selection.
However, Brooklyn held onto impact veterans such as Cam Johnson, Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith into the season. After opening the year 9-10, the Nets finished with the NBA's sixth-worst record. They fell to the eighth pick in the draft, just two spots ahead of the Phoenix Suns' pick, which was one of the four Marks traded to the Rockets.
After seeing such a minuscule initial return on the Houston trade, Tsai and Marks should be feeling pressure to finish higher in this year's draft lottery standings. The 2026 draft class features three elite prospects in Darryn Peterson, A.J. Dybansta and Cam Boozer.
The Nets have already taken steps to ensure a worse record this season. Following Schroder's red-hot start last season, the Nets enter the 2025-26 campaign with exclusively rookies at point guard. That backcourt inexperience should lead to offensive struggles from day one of the regular season.
Marks also shipped Cam Johnson, Brooklyn's top player from last season, to the Denver Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick.
The Nets open the season projected for 20.5 wins, tied with the Washington Wizards for the NBA's second-lowest and trailing only the Utah Jazz (18.5).
