The Brooklyn Nets have played three preseason games thus far in their 2026-27 NBA season with the last one to be played on Wednesday at Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Miami Heat. Brooklyn is coming off a 2025-26 season in which they finished with a 20-62 record and while they are likely to improve on that tally, some around the league still expect to finish far down the Eastern Conference.
“I think the Nets have more talent than the Bulls on paper, but I suspect they’ll finish with a worse record based purely on motivation,” John Hollinger wrote of the Nets for The Athletic. Many around the NBA expect the Nets to win more than 20 games after adding forward Julius Randle via trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves over the offseason, but the East may have improved as a whole at the same time.
“If the Nets don’t have a strong start, they have a strong incentive to chase one of the league’s bottom-three records this season, lest it screw up their chances for a high pick a year from now,” Hollinger continued. “Brooklyn’s bizarre offseason did, at least, land the Nets a frontcourt upgrade in the form of Julius Randle. Combined with Michael Porter Jr., who quietly had a fantastic first half of 2025-26 before Brooklyn pulled the tanking rip cord, the Nets’ starting lineup should have enough shot creation to be functional.”
There is something to be said about whether a team like the Chicago Bulls or the Milwaukee Bucks will ultimately have a better season than the Nets given that both of those teams are rebuilding as well. As it stands right now, Brooklyn’s best player is arguably Randle or forward Michael Porter Jr. while Chicago’s best player is likely to be guard Josh Giddey and Milwaukee’s best player is guard Tyler Herro.
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The Athletic projects the Nets to finish with a 26-56 record while the Bulls are predicted to finish the season with a 27-55 tally and the Bucks are projected at 30-52. The Nets do not have control of their own first-round pick for the 2027 NBA Draft so they will likely not be concerned about how that pick is affected by this season, but the rest of the team already has the goal of exceeding expectations so this probably adds fuel to the fire.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets projected to finish with worst record in NBA Eastern Conference