2025-26 Season Represents New Chapter for Nets Rebuild

The Nets are only a couple of days away from the start of the regular season, which means the start of a new chapter in Brooklyn.

Over the past couple of years, the Nets have been trying to figure out where they stand in the NBA. After landing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2019, it’s clear that Brooklyn could be a player for any major free agent in the future, but those opportunities don’t come around often.

With that in mind, the Nets have still kept the door open for a superstar to join in the not-so-distant future but have mostly pivoted to the next stage of this rebuild. Brooklyn selected five players in the first round of the draft and added some veterans in the offseason, with Michael Porter Jr. being the most notable name of the bunch.

This will arguably be the first season of truly rebuilding, given that Brooklyn spent at least half of last season still teetering on the edge of the play-in race. With any hopes of making the postseason incredibly slim coming into this season, it should be a safe bet that the Nets will be much closer to having the worst record in the league than finishing top 10 in the East.

Of course, one of the biggest reasons this season will begin a new era in Brooklyn is the draft class coming in. Led by No. 8 pick Egor Demin, this group of five first-round rookies will have an opportunity to set the tone for the next era of Brooklyn basketball.

Although none of the Nets’ selections were seen as stars coming into the draft, it’s still perfectly reasonable to believe Brooklyn might have added some gems. While names like Demin, Danny Wolf and Drake Powell could easily define the next few years of Nets basketball, there are still some familiar faces ready to embark on this next chapter while taking on some different roles.

Perhaps the most notable returners for the Nets are Nic Claxton and Cam Thomas. While Thomas’ long-term future is uncertain after this offseason’s free agency fiasco, Claxton’s future in Brooklyn might largely depend on his trade value moving forward. While both players could still play key roles in Brooklyn’s future, the Nets have likely moved on from them being cornerstones.

Over the next 82 games, Brooklyn will find out plenty about its future, but for Jordi Fernandez and company, this will just be one chapter of an exciting new era for the Nets.