{"id":337629,"date":"2026-09-04T03:34:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T03:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/337629\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T03:34:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T03:34:32","slug":"evaluating-the-brooklyn-nets-2026-offseason-hot-hot-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/337629\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating the Brooklyn Nets&#8217; 2026 offseason &#8211; Hot Hot Hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-9.3-12.06PM-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Brooklyn Nets\" class=\"wp-image-11309\"  \/>(Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">The calendar has turned to September. You know what that means, right?! Our offseason outlook series is back for the third-straight year!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Hot Hot Hoops senior writer Matt Hanifan will provide his take on the offseasons of all 30 teams for the next 30 days! We will be going in alphabetical order, beginning with the Eastern Conference. Today, we will look at the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 summer!<\/p>\n<p>Previous offseason outlooks:<\/p>\n<p>Evaluating the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 2026 offseason<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additions: Julius Randle, Moritz Wagner, Keon Ellis<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Subtractions:\u00a0Nic CLaxton, Jalen Wilson, Ochai Agbaji, EJ Liddell, Ziaire Williams<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Re-signed:\u00a0Josh Minot, Day\u2019Ron Sharpe<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Draft:\u00a0Mikel Brown Jr. (No. 6 overall), Joshua Jefferson (No. 28) <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hanifan\u2019s outlook: Coming off a 20-62 season, the Nets needed to retool. Egor Demin exceeded expectations as a rookie, and Michael Porter Jr. played legitimately good basketball. But the rest of the Nets\u2019 core left plenty to be desired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They ended up with the No. 6 pick in June\u2019s draft. And one year after drafting three point guards in the top-26 \u2014 plus another very good ballhandler in Danny Wolf \u2014 they seized another in Mikel Brown Jr. with their top overall selection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown is easily the best of the bunch, with all due respect to Demin, Ben Saraf \u2014 who I am still bullish on, despite a rough past ~15-16 months \u2014 and Nolan Traore. I also like Jefferson\u2019s processing as a ready-made wing; his superpower is his brain and ability to process on both ends of the floor. Those two moves collectively raise Brooklyn\u2019s floor and upside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Additionally, Brooklyn elected to reshape his supporting cast by signing two-way guard Keon Ellis (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/2025\/11\/23\/should-miami-heat-target-keon-ellis-sacramento-kings\/&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj0sqnz5dKWAxVvKkQIHV4XNTgQFnoECCIQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw1j2y6_I9-BRO23piJSDqWr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of my favo<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/2025\/11\/23\/should-miami-heat-target-keon-ellis-sacramento-kings\/&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj0sqnz5dKWAxVvKkQIHV4XNTgQFnoECCIQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw1j2y6_I9-BRO23piJSDqWr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">r<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/2025\/11\/23\/should-miami-heat-target-keon-ellis-sacramento-kings\/&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj0sqnz5dKWAxVvKkQIHV4XNTgQFnoECCIQAQ&amp;usg=AOvVaw1j2y6_I9-BRO23piJSDqWr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ites<\/a>), Moe Wagner and trading for Julius Randle. They\u2019re not exactly a free agency hub, so those aren\u2019t bad moves, although I\u2019m not in love with Randle\u2019s fit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Randle and MPJ fighting for the ball at halfcourt will be a sight to behold (I\u2019m only half joking). I\u2019m not quite sure how he helps the Nets\u2019 young players. Plus, another big drawback was waiting way too long to sell off Claxton. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All in all, the Nets will be more competitive, but they are still in a hamster wheel of mediocrity, and even that is putting it way too kindly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Grade: C+<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">***<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To check out our other content, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hothothoops.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Twitter\/X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hothothoops?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Follow Hot Hot Hoops on Instagram\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hothothoops?fbclid=PAAaZK-uxa3cMPUQcM2z6aGmK3faJ-G1R7YKtEOcPJNPO4VwfOvw1epBIoCyk_aem_Ad_aZ7zQwWkfVN5rHfd0UkIWrYEnU4j4Ulz0SRK__Qt1738L-NeQ3cZC5voFks7V6K8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Subscribe to our YouTube channel\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/hothothoops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images) The calendar has turned to September. You know what that means, right?! Our&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-337629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}