Brooklyn Nets Land 22nd in The Athletic’s NBA Offseason Rankings

Think what you will about the 2025-26 Brooklyn Nets. They won't be world beaters. They almost certainly won't be in the playoff mix. They may end up finishing as one of the three worst teams in the Eastern Conference.

All that may be true. But two things can be true. And it's also true that Brooklyn had far from the worst NBA offseason.

Longtime journalist David Aldridge agrees with this sentiment, ranking the Nets as having the 22nd-best offseason among their rivals and counterparts. Aldridge's full list released on The Athletic yesterday, and Brooklyn landed above notable organizations such as the Los Ang eles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Phoenix Suns.

"Someone has to score on bad teams, so [Michael] Porter Jr. will have the green light from jump while he’s at Barclays Center. It feels like the Nets sold a little low on [Cam] Johnson, though I get speculating on that ’32 first becoming a golden ticket," Aldridge wrote.

Aldridge led with Brooklyn's big-time trade of Cam Johnson, earning Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-rounder from the Denver Nuggets in return. Porter has familiarity with Head Coach Jordi Fernandez and can get a bucket whenever he's called upon. Plus, by the time that first-rounder conveys, the average age of the Nuggets' Nikola Jokic-Jamal Murray-Aaron Gordon core will be 36 years old. That pick is destined to be highly valuable.

"And while each of the five players Brooklyn got in the draft have solid skills, particularly Demin and Saraf, there’s no way the Nets planned to use all of their ’25 firsts . I’m pretty sure they hoped to use them to move up into the top five and get a real difference-maker who could accelerate the rebuild. That was a missed opportunity," Aldridge continued.

If Aldridge's speculation is correct, then yes, not trading into the top five for a prospect like Tre Johnson or Ace Bailey was a missed opportunity. But that's only if that was the original plan. There was countless smoke surrounding the possibility of the Nets trading up, which they clearly had the assets to do. Since it didn't happen, maybe they were never that intent on doing so.

"Another tank season looms, with the stakes now even higher to get a top-four pick in 2026," Aldridge concluded.

Gaining another lottery pick next year seems to be a foregone conclusion—until one glances at how the Nets began last season. Brooklyn was too good throughout the first half of the 2024-25 campaign, a reality that accelerated the departures of Dennis Schroder and Dorian Finney-Smith.

The Nets are widely expected to lose plenty of games again this season, but Fernandez's impact may prevent the team from finishing with some of the highest lottery odds. It's not likely, but certainly possible. Time will tell.