The 2025-26 NBA season is here! Over the next few weeks, we’re examining the biggest questions, best- and worst-case scenarios, and win projections for all 30 franchises — from the still-rebuilding teams to the true title contenders.
2024-25 finish
-
Record: 26-56 (12th in the East, missed playoffs)
Offseason moves
-
Additions: Michael Porter Jr., Terance Mann, Haywood Highsmith, Kobe Bufkin, E.J. Liddell, Egor Dëmin, Nolan Traoré, Ben Saraf, Drake Powell, Danny Wolf
-
Subtractions: Cameron Johnson, D’Angelo Russell, De’Anthony Melton, Keon Johnson, Trendon Watford, Tosan Evbuomwan, Reece Beekman, Maxwell Lewis
(Taylor Wilhelm/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
The Big Question: Is this the start of something … and, if so, um, what, exactly?
After regaining control of their 2025 first-round pick as part of the wheeling and dealing that sent Mikal Bridges across the East River, most expected that the Nets would operate like a team with a vested interest in being as terrible as possible. Instead first-year head coach Jordi Fernández had Brooklyn running and gunning out of the gate, hovering around .500 and the top 10 in offensive efficiency through the first quarter of the season.
Even after general manager Sean Marks sought to put the kibosh on that, trading away veterans Dennis Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith, Fernández found something resembling stability, turning his shuffled-up roster into a top-10 defense for the better part of two months. Under Fernández, a number of young players improved — offensive-rebounding machine Day’Ron Sharpe, 3-and-D wing Ziaire Williams, gestating stretch big Noah Clowney, et al. — and the Nets actually won seven of nine around the All-Star break.
[Yahoo Sports TV is here! Watch live shows and highlights 24/7]
“Seeing these guys getting better, seeing these guys fighting all the way until the end — those are wins for us,” Fernández told reporters. “Winning starts now.”
That winning came at a cost, though: namely, depressing Brooklyn’s lottery odds, and eventually landing the No. 8 pick in June’s 2025 NBA Draft. Instead of Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper, the Nets came away with BYU ball-handler Egor Dëmin, the first selection in an unprecedented class featuring five first-round picks. (We might not see them all right away: Dëmin reportedly suffered a plantar fascia tear after Summer League, while swingman Drake Powell, the 22nd overall pick out of UNC, still hasn’t been cleared as he battles left knee tendinopathy. Marks said on media day he anticipates both being ready for opening night.)
Influenced heavily by that quintet of draft-night arrivals, the Nets enter the 2025-26 season as far and away the youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of Brooklyn’s roster at 23.6 years old, according to RealGM. Eight Nets have yet to reach their 23rd birthday. No player on this roster has more than six years of NBA experience.
Brooklyn’s leading scorer, 23-year-old guard Cam Thomas, ended a lengthy summertime stalemate in restricted free agency by signing his $6 million qualifying offer — a “bet on yourself” decision dramatically increasing the odds he’ll suit up in a different uniform next season. The most seasoned Nets just arrived in trade: 28-year-old wings Terance Mann and Haywood Highsmith (still rehabbing after meniscus surgery), and the 27-year-old MPJ, who enters the nation’s No. 1 media market following a summer full of noxious podcast/livestream commentary — which also included the claim that, after years of back injuries, he’s not sure how much longer he wants to play in the NBA, and that he plans to make that decision one year at a time from here on out. (Seems notable, with Porter Jr. on the books for $79.1 million over the next two seasons.)
Porter Jr. is a gifted shot-maker — 40.6% from 3-point range on more than 10 attempts per 100 possessions for his career — and it’ll be interesting to see him try to stretch his game beyond the narrowly tailored catch-and-shoot parameters in which he operated next to Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray. He’s never averaged more than 1.09 dribbles per touch, according to Jared Dubin of Last Night in Basketball; unassisted baskets accounted for fewer than 20% of his made shots in each of the last three seasons.
[Get more Nets news: Brooklyn team feed]
For all those gifts and all that possibility, though, Porter Jr. was primarily a means to an end: a way to turn Brooklyn’s vast oceans of cap space (still getting creative in trying to hit the salary floor!) into an unprotected Nuggets first-round pick in 2032, when Jokić will be 37 and Denver might have cycled out of consistent contention. The trade transformed present-tense cash into another future lottery ticket to add to the dozen first-round picks and 19 second-round selections that Brooklyn controlled.
The juiciest of those, in all likelihood? Their own first-rounder in next June’s 2026 Draft, with prospects like Darryn Peterson, A.J. Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer and Nate Ament looming.
So: Expect plenty of minutes, touches and ball-handling opportunities for all those bright young things. Expect plenty of chances for them to learn — the hard way — how to communicate and execute on defense. Expect Fernández and Co. to prioritize development above all else, and expect Marks to welcome any and all trade-deadline check-ins on the availability of guys like Mann and center Nic Claxton (reportedly healthy after suffering through back issues amid a frustrating down season).
Just don’t expect many nights where Brooklyn finishes with more points than its opposition. It’s admirable for Fernández to tell his young charges that winning starts now. For the Nets’ rebuild to take off, though, winning’s going to need to start with a whoooooooole lot of losing.
Best-case scenario
Fernández continues to coax meaningful development out of the gaggle of 22-and-under players under his care, with one (or more) of Dëmin, Traoré, Saraf or Bufkin popping enough on the ball to inspire confidence that Brooklyn’s got a real path to a point guard of the future. That development, however, isn’t meaningful enough to produce anything more than the worst record in the NBA, guaranteeing a top-five pick and a chance at the type of potentially transformational homegrown talent that the Nets have lacked since before Barclays Center even opened. MPJ’s podcast mic breaks and he can’t find another one, no matter how many thousands of dollars he spends on Ubers.
If everything falls apart
None of the rookies look like difference-makers, but Fernández once again makes chicken salad out of chicken feathers to the degree that sicko NBA podcasters are putting guys like Tyrese Martin and Jalen Wilson on their 58-Name Most Improved Player Long Lists. Brooklyn once again wins more games than is clinically recommended, once again drops into the bottom half of the lottery, and once again enters the summer wondering if there’s any reason to believe in, well, anything.
2025-26 schedule
-
Season opener: Oct. 22 at Charlotte
For Nets fans’ sake, let’s try to manifest the under.
More season previews
East: Atlanta Hawks • Boston Celtics • Brooklyn Nets • Charlotte Hornets • Chicago Bulls • Cleveland Cavaliers • Detroit Pistons • Indiana Pacers • Miami Heat • Milwaukee Bucks • New York Knicks • Orlando Magic • Philadelphia 76ers • Toronto Raptors • Washington Wizards
West: Dallas Mavericks • Denver Nuggets • Golden State Warriors • Houston Rockets • Los Angeles Clippers • Los Angeles Lakers • Memphis Grizzlies • Minnesota Timberwolves • New Orleans Pelicans • Oklahoma City Thunder • Phoenix Suns • Portland Trail Blazers • Sacramento Kings • San Antonio Spurs • Utah Jazz
Read the full article here
