Brooklyn's preseason kept rolling, and so did the record — now 3-1 in exhibition play, though the regular-season mark still reads 0-0. On October 12 the Nets beat the Wizards on the road, 131-122, with Michael Porter Jr. scoring 17 and Nolan Traore adding 13. Two days later, on October 14, Brooklyn lost at Miami, 128-144, with Porter Jr. scoring 18 and Egor Dëmin adding 12. Porter Jr. has now scored in all three games tracked this preseason: 16 against Charlotte, 17 against Washington, 18 against Miami.
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Several injuries resolved. Day'Ron Sharpe and Michael Porter Jr., both listed day-to-day on October 8, were cleared on October 12. Mikel Brown Jr., day-to-day with an ankle and leg issue since September 28 and updated October 8 to specify his left side, was cleared on October 14. Separately, Nolan Traore had already gone from day-to-day to cleared back on September 28, before either preseason game was played.
Not every injury went the same way. Joshua Jefferson, day-to-day with a back and torso issue since October 5, was moved to Out on October 16 — a step backward rather than a clearance, and still the same back and torso problem.
The roster kept churning. Nick Pringle left the team on September 28, before the preseason games started. Dion Brown, who had just joined on October 9, left again on October 12 — a three-day stay. Dain Dainja left the same day, October 12. Ben Humrichous left on October 16. All three of the most recent additions — Dainja and Humrichous signed September 23, Dion Brown added October 9 — are now gone, leaving the roster at eighteen players: Jefferson, Minott, Wolf, Powell, Dëmin, Traore, Ellis, Mann, Nelson, Porter Jr., Saraf, Sharpe, Wagner, Clowney, Randle, Mikel Brown Jr., Johnson and Bilodeau.
Roundup coverage kept naming Nets players without adding specifics. An October 13 "Nets Notes" item grouped Randle, Brown, Johnson and Traore. An October 17 "New York Notes" roundup listed Drummond, McBride, Diawara and a line called "Nets' Predictions," again with no detail attached to what that prediction says.
Randle's September 12 comment — that the Nets will exceed expectations this season — now sits behind a 3-1 preseason, with one loss on the ledger at Miami alongside wins over Charlotte, Philadelphia and Washington. The record stays 0-0 until the games start counting. That test is still ahead.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 18Day-to-day since October 5, his back and torso issue was downgraded to Out on October 16, with no clearance.
He scored in all three tracked preseason games (16, 17, 18) and was cleared of his wrist/arm issue on October 12.
The three most recent additions — Dainja, Humrichous, Dion Brown — have all left the team, settling the roster at eighteen.
Preseason sits at three wins and one loss (Washington, then a loss at Miami), but the 0-0 regular-season record is the real test still ahead.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Michael Porter Jr. (5.3 wins without him), Egor Demin (4.1 wins without him), Julius Randle (3.6 wins without him), Terance Mann (2.3 wins without him) and Noah Clowney (2.1 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Sat, Oct 24; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Eastern Conference · 81 games leftNext 5: at Cavaliers0%vs Pacers50%at Celtics50%vs Pistons100%at Pacers50%opponents win 50% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
36 days on the recordEarlier on the record32 more days · back to Mon, Sep 7
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Jordi Fernandez enters his second season as head coach of a Nets team still in teardown mode. Last season Brooklyn finished 20-62, with a league-worst offense (30th of 30) and a 25th-ranked defense, netting out to the NBA's second-worst net rating at -10. The core is built around Julius Randle, who averaged 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists across 79 games, and Michael Porter Jr., who put up 24.2 points and 7.1 rebounds in 52 games. Around them sit younger pieces like Noah Clowney, rookie guard Egor Dëmin, Terance Mann, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf, with a roster averaging 23.7 years old across 18 players. Brooklyn sits at $160.1 million in payroll on 15 contracts, under the $165.0 million salary cap, with Porter Jr. ($40.8M) and Randle ($33.3M) as the two biggest numbers. The Nets hold swap rights on their 2027 and 2028 first-round picks but own their 2029 and 2030 firsts outright. The summer and preseason brought steady roster churn at the margins, with Dain Dainja, Ben Humrichous and Dion Brown all arriving and departing within weeks, and Randle predicting in September that this team would exceed expectations.
Identity and rivalries102 words
Brooklyn's modern identity was forged in its 2012 move from New Jersey, trading a plain regional profile for a sharper Brooklyn-specific one, from black-and-white Nike kits to City Edition jerseys referencing the Brooklyn Bridge, Notorious B.I.G. and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The 2024 rebrand retired the old shield logo in favor of the "B" basketball mark as the team's primary identity. On the floor last season that identity translated into the NBA's worst offense and a losing record, a far cry from the team's self-image as a borough-defining, culturally connected franchise built through Barclays Center's downtown Brooklyn location rather than suburban New Jersey roots.
Home, owners and numbers95 words
The Nets play at Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn, New York, owned by Joseph Tsai, who bought a 49% stake from Mikhail Prokhorov in 2017, exercised the option to buy the rest in August 2019, and also purchased the arena itself from Prokhorov for nearly $1 billion. The NBA retired Bill Russell's No. 6 league-wide for all teams, including the Nets, on August 11, 2022. Ian Eagle has called Nets games on television since 2011, alongside Sarah Kustok, Ryan Ruocco and Noah Eagle, while Chris Carrino and Tim Capstraw handle the radio broadcasts on WFAN.
What they are chasing114 words
After a 20-62 season, Brooklyn is chasing a return to respectability rather than a title, with a young, inexpensive roster still under the salary cap and payroll flexibility to build through the draft picks it owns outright in 2029 and 2030. The preseason went 3-1, including wins over Washington, Charlotte and Philadelphia and a loss at Miami, but that record resets to 0-0 once the regular season begins. Fans are left arguing over Randle's September claim that this team will exceed expectations: is a veteran core paired with rookies like Dëmin and Traore actually ready to climb out of the league's basement, or is last season's historically bad offense still the real floor here?
The long view429 words
The Nets began in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, playing their first season in Teaneck, New Jersey, as the New Jersey Americans. In 1968 the team moved to Long Island and became the New York Nets. Led by Hall of Famer Julius Erving, the club won ABA championships in 1974 and 1976.
When the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976, the Nets were one of four ABA teams absorbed into the league, along with the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Unlike those three, the Nets had to pay the New York Knicks a $4.8 million "invasion fee" (equivalent to $27 million in 2025) for encroaching on their market. To cover it, the team sold Erving's contract to the Philadelphia 76ers, and went from an ABA title in 1975-76 to the NBA's worst record in 1976-77.
In 1977 the franchise moved back to New Jersey and played as the New Jersey Nets through 2012. Point guard Jason Kidd transformed the team into a perennial contender, taking the Nets to consecutive NBA Finals in 2001-02 and 2002-03, though they lost both. The later acquisition of Vince Carter kept the roster competitive in the Eastern Conference through the mid-2000s.
In 2012 the team relocated again, this time to Barclays Center in Brooklyn, a move the NBA Board of Governors approved unanimously on April 13, 2012. It made the Nets the first major sports franchise in Brooklyn since the Brooklyn Dodgers left in 1957. Since the move, the Nets have reached the playoffs eight times, including conference semifinal runs in 2014 and 2021. Major roster overhauls, including a trade that brought in Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and later the acquisitions of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, have not delivered a championship.
The Nets' sharpest rivalry runs through the Boston Celtics, dating to the 2002 Eastern Conference finals between Kidd and Kenyon Martin's Nets and Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker's Celtics, a series marked by fan taunts on both sides; the Nets swept Boston in the 2003 playoffs. The rivalry resurfaced in 2012 with an on-court altercation involving Rajon Rondo, Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries, and again from 2019 to 2021 around Kyrie Irving, culminating in a fan throwing a water bottle at Irving at TD Garden. Geography drives the rivalry with the crosstown New York Knicks, dubbed the "Clash of the Boroughs." Against the Toronto Raptors, the Nets won playoff series in 2007 (on a Richard Jefferson buzzer-beater) and 2014 (on a Paul Pierce block), before Toronto swept Brooklyn in the 2020 playoffs.