Though Tuesday’s Media Day at Brooklyn’s HSS Practice Facility signified the beginning of another basketball season, the journey to the 2026 NBA Draft won’t end soon enough for a large segment of Nets fans.
Poised to be one of the youngest teams in league history, Brooklyn’s expectations are figuratively underwater. This promises to be a long and ugly seven months. And as we all know, the Draft Lottery destination provides no assurances of pain relief.
Perhaps learning a lesson in the art of tanking last season, when veterans like Dennis Shroder, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Cam Johnson brought winning pedigrees and, hence, extra wins to a program looking ahead to its first lottery pick in 15 years, Nets General Manager Sean Marks was a bit more selective with his roster construction this summer. Yes, Michael Porter Jr, who was Denver’s consideration in the Johnson trade, earned an NBA championship ring, but it remains to be seen whether he can adapt to this drastic change of scenery with the same professionalism as Johnson did. From my perspective, Terance Mann and Haywood Highsmith, the team’s “grey beards” at 28, were acquired in salary dumps to A) Add Draft capital, and B) Fill supporting roles with lesser projected impacts on games’ outcomes than the above vets from last season.
Still, many Nets fans simply crave basketball, and while the preseason version is a poor substitute for the real thing, their fix will soon be sated with four games starting with an exhibition at Barclays Center versus an Israeli team on October 4. That will be followed by a two-game excursion to China with Phoenix before the October 17 preseason conclusion in Toronto.
Here are three things to watch as the Nets prepare for one of their least anticipated seasons in franchise history.
1) Veterans versus Rookies
For many fans, the focal point of training camp and throughout the season will be the team’s five first-round Draft picks, with No. 8 overall selection Egor Demin garnering the most interest. However, I wouldn’t expect Head Coach Jordi Fernandez to just throw these kids (Demin is one of three 19-year olds, Drake Powell is 20, and Danny Wolf is 21) into the fire. Minutes will have to be earned and G League Long Island looms for those who need steady runs to iron out their games. Among the Flatbush 5, as NetsDaily.com calls them, Demin (plantar fasciitis) and Powell (knee) will first have to heal from summer injuries before we see them on the court.
In the grander scheme, a theoretical battle will likely brew all season between what can be divergent missions of playing to win versus young player development. It would be logical for Head Coach Jordi Fernandez, in his second season, to prefer to prioritize the former path to bolster his resume. Which isn’t to say that he would like to bury all of his youngsters on the bench, especially during a meaningless preseason. However, it will be interesting to see the experimental lineups he conjures and how he’ll balance his rookies’ inexperience with veteran know-how. For instance, Demin, when healthy, might get acclimated to the league’s physicality and speed more quickly by playing off the ball—how will that affect No. 19 overall selection Nolan Traore, a more natural point guard, since Fernandez might be loath to pair them in the backcourt against upper-level NBA competition?
While the Nets lack high-end talent, the gap between players competing for many rotation slots isn’t that wide. Will someone like No. 26 overall pick Ben Saraf get the nod over an older player in a close call?
The pro-tank Nets fans are passionate that the answer should be “yes.” With Fernandez, who has to think about his own future, one can’t be so sure.
2) The cuts
NBA teams are allowed to bring up to 21 players to their training camps. On many clubs, you can figure out their 15-man roster before the first exhibition’s opening tip. Those on guaranteed contracts are pretty much locked in while a slew of obviously lesser candidates vies for three two-way jobs. The cuts generally don’t surprise.
The Nets, though, can be way more fluid in their decision making. Since they are well under the salary cap (and could potentially find themselves under the cap floor), waiving a player on a guaranteed contract wouldn’t have the same financial consequences as, say, a team in danger of breaching an apron.
As such, it would be foolish to assume that the players with minimal or no guarantees—Jalen Wilson, Tyrese Martin, Drew Timme, and Zeng Fanbo—have no path toward making the team and are wasting their efforts in camp. There are a few Nets on expiring contracts (when factoring in 2026-27 team options) who could be usurped should they underperform this preseason. I’d label oft-injured 2023 first round pick Dariq Whitehead as one such player whose rope might be running out. The Nets have Tyson Etienne and E.J. Liddell signed to two-way deals, which makes them vulnerable to rescission as well.
I doubt Marks will opt to leave a roster slot open in case another club calls with a plea for cap relief; he generally doesn’t make such a move until he has to. Still, the Nets’ proverbial game of musical chairs could be intriguing.
3) Cam Thomas’ mindset
The Nets and Thomas did their best on Tuesday to remain professional when asked about what had to be a tense and personal negotiation of the fifth-year guard’s restricted free agency extension. In the end, Thomas bet on himself by taking the team’s $6 million qualified offer to control his own destiny. He can’t be traded this season without his permission and will enter unrestricted free agency next July.
He’ll still have to get through the 2025-26 season first, and how he does it might affect his thereafter. I don’t expect Thomas to sulk his way through the campaign…so long as he’s playing regularly. Though nothing is written in stone, the Nets and Thomas seem doomed to an eventual divorce, making his happiness less of a priority within organizational circles. The team is loaded with off-ball guards—young guards at that—even if none of them have shown a sliver of Thomas’ bucket-getting “superpower”, as Fernandez calls it. Good luck to Fernandez with keeping everyone happy, not just Thomas.
Like most NBA regulars, Thomas will have his minutes rationed during the preseason. Pay less attention to the results of those minutes and watch how engaged he is in his weaker areas like playmaking and defense. Those just happen to be Fernandez’s nonnegotiables. Move the ball and guard like a hound.
Thomas, in his limited 25-game sample due to injuries, made small strides in balancing his game last season. But should Fernandez see an erosion in Thomas’ attention to details in camp, it will make the HC’s playing time allocation part of the job for the regular season easier.
I'll be looking to see whether Egor can actually play Point-Guard or play some hybrid version of a 2-Guard and a Small-Forward. My good guess is Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf will impress Jordi enough to command minutes at the 1, while Egor finds his role playing the 2 and the 3.
I'll also look forward to seeing Cam Thomas double down on the words he told Michael Scotto: I see no need to change my game, I'll simply play my game and see what Jordi wants. If nothing has changed, then it's too bad for him