In latest predictions, a little less doom-and-gloom

As we’ve written recently, we don’t put a lot of stock in off-season rankings and ratings, particularly those posted so close to Opening Night. After all, the real measure of a team’s off-season moves — real wins and losses — are so close at hand. We’ll know soon enough exactly where things stand and said rankings and ratings will be forgotten.

Still, there have been some predictions of late that while not changing the overall belief that the Nets will be bad, they represent a bit of pundit pull-back, particularly in ESPN’s latest rankings. It was only a few weeks ago that the worldwide leader predicted 18 wins, which would be two less than last season’s tankathon and the third worst in the franchise’s history.

Advertisement

On Wednesday, an ESPN insiders’ panel released its rankings of NBA futures … where each team will be in three years time. The Nets ranked 24th, up from 27th last year. Progress?

The bottom line, written by Zach Kram, described the Nets outlook this way:

[T]he Nets rank near the top of both the draft and money categories. But beyond the frontcourt pairing of Michael Porter Jr. and new Net Julius Randle, this is still a roster devoid of win-now talent, as Brooklyn is still primarily focused on the development of a half-dozen recent first-round picks. That timeline means it’s hard to expect too many wins from this team in the near term.

Dean Oliver, an ESPN consultant, suggested that history is not on the Nets side.

The Nets are top five in both money and draft for the third straight season but bottom five in players. Usually, teams in that situation are two years away from being about average or better. But given Brooklyn’s low win predictions for this season, the franchise might have actually been two years away from being two years away back in 2024.

The big long term prediction by Oliver also stings:

Nets will get bored of rebuilding and make an all-in play for a superstar during one of the next two summers. This is just the natural life cycle for Brooklyn, which sold the farm for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2013 and landed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2019.

The rankings take into…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/latest-predictions-little-less-doom-170525250.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-09-17 17:05:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.