Brooklyn Nets' Recent Success is Hurting Future Draft Odds

It has been a long time since NBA teams first figured out that mediocrity is the worst position to be in. It's how tanking became a legitimate topic of conversation, which led to the league creating new lottery odds for the NBA Draft.

It's better to be at the bottom of the standings than to be somewhere in the middle, hovering around a late playoff seed or the Play-In Tournament. While the Brooklyn Nets aren't quite at that level, they're in an even more specific spot, in between that and a bottom-three pick in the draft.

The Nets most recently faced a fellow basement dweller in the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday, and rattled off their third win in four games, 119-101. With recent victories against the Pelicans, Chicago Bulls, and Charlotte Hornets, one thing is clear: Brooklyn is not constructed to win, but it also isn't constructed to lose enough games.

The Nets currently sit as the 13th seed in the Eastern Conference with a 6-17 record. If the season ended today, they'd rank sixth in lottery odds with a 9% chance at the No. 1 overall pick and a 37.2% at the top four.

For reference, this is the same spot Brooklyn finished last season. The franchise ended up with the No. 8 pick, sliding back from the projection.

It's fun to see the Nets rattle off more wins than people expected. Their win total heading into the season was less than 20 games, and they're on track to beat that mark, just 23 total games in.

However, while teams have shot up in the lottery (i.e., the Dallas Mavericks in 2025 and Atlanta Hawks in 2024), it still helps dramatically if a rebuilding team like Brooklyn has enough losses to finish in the bottom three. Those teams each have a 14% chance at No. 1 and more than a 50% chance at the top three.

If the Nets enter that, then they'd be able to take one of the three generational prospects the 2026 draft has to offer: AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, or Cam Boozer.

Yes, it's still early in the season, and there are still positives to take away from wins. However, Brooklyn had a clear goal heading into the new NBA year: to develop the youth and set itself up for a top pick in June. The Nets could be celebrating wins now, but reaping the disadvantages later on.