Shooting Fewer Threes Could Benefit Brooklyn Nets in 2025-26

The Brooklyn Nets might not make the playoffs next season, but they could improve for the future with a simple change.

Last season, not much went right for the Nets. After opening the season with a fun and competitive group that looked ready to make a push for the play-in, the Nets traded some guys, such as Dennis Schroder, leading to a quick dropoff.

Despite knowing they wouldn’t be a playoff team, the Nets weren’t quite ready to sell at the deadline, and the team even had a late-season resurgence that nearly brought them back into the play-in picture. Of course, that would be fine for some teams, but it simply burdened Brooklyn with bad lottery odds in a clear tank year.

Even through all of the ups and downs of last season, one thing remained consistent: Brooklyn’s reliance on the 3-point shot. While certain stretches saw Brooklyn get hot, it was mostly a detriment to the team’s offense.

Not to say there’s anything inherently wrong with taking a lot of threes, but it’s not always the best way to develop young talent on a tanking team. Last season, the Nets finished third in the league in 3-point attempt rate, putting up 45.8% of their shots from beyond the arc.

The Nets were one of six teams to shoot at least 45% of their shots from 3-point range, but they were the only squad to be in the bottom half of the league in 3-point percentage, finishing 25th at 34.4%.

Although Michael Porter Jr. loves to let it fly from deep, and other additions in Terance Mann and Haywood Highsmith are solid floor stretchers, the overall idea should be for Brooklyn to take more of its shots inside. With five rookies from the first round, Jordi Fernandez shouldn’t put much emphasis on their outside shots early in their development.

While it will be important for the Nets’ young stars to become solid shooters, throwing them into the fire and forcing their shot diets to be 3-point heavy in year one could be a mistake. Along with that, the 3-point shot should be an ending point for the Nets in their rebuild.

Shooting so many threes with a rather pedestrian shooting team can leave many of Brooklyn’s tight games up to shot variance. Obviously, winning when you hit more threes isn’t exactly some bold statement, but it doesn’t serve the Nets well if a few extra shots going in from deep registers a game as successful despite most stats pointing to a dreadful offense last season.