On Saturday, the top two projected picks in the 2026 draft will face off when Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa meet at Allen Fieldhouse. The following Saturday, Duke’s Cameron Boozer will battle North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson in a matchup of projected top four picks.
This is where the Nets must look to find hope this season.
Only three weeks ago, Brooklyn was within one game in the loss column of the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, threatening to derail the front office’s overt tanking plans for the second straight season. The Nets had enjoyed a 10-game stretch in which they claimed seven wins, earning victories in Chicago (23-22), Philadelphia (24-20) and Minnesota (27-19), in addition to a 15-point home win over Toronto (29-19).
Now, respectability is out of reach as the Nets (12-32) have descended back into contention in the draft lottery race by losing 13 of their past 15 games, moving them within two games of the Wizards (10-34), who own the NBA’s worst win percentage.
Washington and Indiana (11-36) are the only teams in the league with fewer wins, but the Nets could soon drop below them, having potentially already begun what could be one of their darkest stretches, with six losses by at least 16 points this month.
Brooklyn’s current five-game losing streak started with a 22-point loss to the Bulls. The ultimate embarrassment came in a 120-66 loss to the reeling Knicks, marking the second-worst loss in franchise history. The latest embarrassment came Sunday in a 126-89 loss to the Clippers, when two Nets finished with double-digit points and second-year coach Jordi Fernández bypassed his typical clichés to “improve by 1 percent each day,” describing the league’s youngest team as playing like “losers” for the majority of the game.
“We have to decide who we want to be,” Fernández said. “And it starts with everybody’s focus and effort. You have to make sure you understand where your feet are. It’s the most important thing right now.
“ … There’s nothing better than competitive minutes to improve. Because if you play too many losing minutes, it can create a lot of bad habits.”
In December, the Nets had the league’s top-rated defense. Through 14 games this month, the Nets rank 29th in defensive rating, while the offense ranks last in the league, having averaged the fewest points (104.3) and worst field goal percentage (42.8) in the NBA, while ranking 28th in rebounding percentage.
On Tuesday, Brooklyn plays the second game of its five-game road trip in Phoenix (27-19), which has lost back-to-back games and will be without star guard Devin Booker (ankle). Last week, the Suns — who are 1-4 without Booker this season — beat the Nets in Brooklyn 126-117 after jumping out to a 15-point first-quarter lead.
The current Nets losing streak began after trailing by 19 in the first quarter in Chicago. Against the Knicks, the Nets trailed by 18 after one quarter. Against the Clippers, they trailed by 24 after scoring a season-low 14 points.
It won’t take long to see how long the night in Phoenix will be.
“It starts with responsibility,” Fernández said. “We’ll move on. We’ll learn from it. We’ll hold each other accountable. And that’s how it should be.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
