If you live in New York and know nothing about sports, which basketball team would you rather root for?
The choice is obvious. You could pull for the New York Knicks, who just advanced to the NBA Finals and sit just four wins away from a championship. Or you could back the Brooklyn Nets, who finished with a 20-62 record and are one of the worst teams in the NBA.
On May 25, the Knicks dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 130-93. With the victory, the Knicks completed a clean sweep to advance to the Finals for the first time in 27 years, since 1999. Riding an 11-game winning streak, the Knicks have clicked on all cylinders and completely overshadowed the other NBA team down the road.
The Brooklyn Nets, on the other hand, are a disaster. They are currently in basketball hell, playing second fiddle in the Big Apple. The Nets have suffered three consecutive losing seasons. Their last taste of success came during the 2022-2023 season, finishing 45-37 to secure the 6th seed in the Eastern Conference before getting swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Philadelphia 76ers.
That season began with the team high on championship hopes, bolstered by the talents of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. However, the franchise faced heavy drama, coaching changes and roster turnover. Just seven games into the season, head coach Steve Nash was fired following a slow start and replaced by Jacque Vaughn. By early February, both Durant and Irving requested trades, resulting in their departures to the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks respectively.
Years later, the Nets found themselves at the bottom of the NBA standings, attempting to rebuild through the draft.
Going into the 2025 NBA Draft, the Nets had six draft selections, five in the first round alone. On draft night, they made league history by becoming the first franchise ever to select five players in the first round: Egor Demin (Pick 8), Nolan Traoré (Pick 19), Drake Powell (Pick 22), Ben Saraf (Pick 26) and Danny Wolf (Pick 27). Yet fast forward to the end of this season and the Nets are still struggling to find their foundational cornerstones.
The reality of the situation is clear: the Nets need a savior. They need a Day One, young superstar talent to walk through the doors and revive the franchise.
In the upcoming 2026 NBA Draft, which begins on June 23, the Nets hold three draft selections. They own the No. 6 pick in the first round, alongside two second-round assets at 33 and 43. If the front office keeps these selections rather than making a trade, Brooklyn will have drafted eight young prospects in just two seasons.
Adding to the urgency in Brooklyn is the NBA’s sweeping anti-tanking reform passed by the Board of Governors on Thursday. The newly approved “3-2-1” lottery system creates a “draft relegation zone” that actively penalizes the bottom three teams by giving them worse draft odds. For rebuilding teams like the Nets, the strategy of intentionally bottoming out to secure a No. 1 pick is officially dead. Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks can no longer rely on tanking and the front office must maximize the draft assets they hold right now.
If a franchise cannot find a cornerstone player within this talented draft class, when will the time come?
With the NBA draft right around the corner and the basketball world watching, it is simply now or never for the Brooklyn Nets.
