The Brooklyn Nets are a few days away from beginning their 2026-27 NBA regular season after a successful preseason where they finished with a 3-1 record while seeing plenty of progress. Brooklyn is hoping to win as many games as possible with head coach Jordi Fernandez heading into his third season, but what should the ultimate goal be for the rebuilding franchise?
"Randle is the new piece, and it will be interesting to see how much he and Porter connect in the Nets’ offense. If Sharpe is the starting center, he could be going head-to-head with some All-Star big men," John Schuhmann wrote on the Nets for NBA.com. Brooklyn has multiple goals to achieve over the course of this season, but it's possible that the development of the younger players could take precedent over anything else.
"But the focus should be on the second-year guys and how much they’ve improved after a year in the league and a summer of working on their game," Schuhmann continued. "[Egor] Demin seemingly has the tools to be a long-time starter, but needs to play bigger. Nolan Traoré has the quickness to bend defenses, but needs to be stronger with the ball. And Drake Powell needs to show that he can shoot."
The Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the roster as much as possible and they led to the team acquiring forward Julius Randle from the Minnesota Timberwolves via trade. Brooklyn added Randle to a starting lineup that will likely also contain guard Egor Demin, forward Michael Porter Jr., and center Day'Ron Sharpe for their home opener against the Charlotte Hornets.
At the same time, the Nets still have eight players on the roster that they've selected in the last two drafts so at some point, the team has to see what they have in some of those players. Granted, two goals can be achieved at the same time so Brooklyn is likely hoping that the team sees more wins than the 20 they earned last year while seeing some of the younger players on the team grow into their own.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: What should the Nets' ultimate goal be for the 2026-27 NBA season?