Analysts are making bold predictions about Brooklyn’s 19.5 O/U win total

The The Brooklyn Nets are expected to be among the worst teams in the NBA this season. After falling to the eighth pick in the 2025 draft, the rebuilding team is aiming for a top selection in the highly touted 2026 draft. The Nets boast the youngest roster in the NBA that includes an NBA record five rookie first round picks.

That inexperience and Brooklyn’s clear agenda inspired little confidence about the team’s outlook for 2025-26. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Nets win projection set at 20.5. Keith Smith of CBS Sports projected Jordi Fernandez’s team will finish under that number.

“I was tempted to take Brooklyn purely because of Jordi Fernandez and the Eastern Conference, but since we’ve touched so many teams, the incentive,” Smith wrote. “The Nets actively traded up for their 2025 and 2026 first-round picks. They paid a premium to do it. That went poorly in 2025, producing an No. 8 pick where no trade would have taken them to No. 10. They basically have to fix this tank because the Rockets control their five 2027 tanks, so they expect the 2027 pick to tour. Rookies which dominated the ball in the first round, it was a good start.”

As Smith, the Nets general manager, notes Sean Marks should feel pressure to maximize Brooklyn’s 2026 pick.

Will a revamped Nets roster win 20 or fewer games during a struggling campaign?

Combined with the Mykal Bridges trade last summer, Marks dealt four first-round picks to the Houston Rockets to reacquire Brooklyn’s 2025 and 2026 first-rounders. One of those four picks was a 2025 first-rounder from the Phoenix Suns, who the Nets finished just two spots ahead of. That little early bounce back led to the front office in Brooklyn positioning itself for a cleaner tank this season.

After Jordi Fernandez’s coaching and Dennis Schroeder’s high-level play led the Nets to a surprising 9-10 start last season, the team enters the 2025-26 season with an all-new roster. They also traded their best player, Cam Johnson, to the Denver Nuggets for Michael Porter Jr. and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick. Those moves he brought in Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe to take over the floor on the FanDuel bookies projection of 19.5 wins for Brooklyn.

“Jordi’s city office secured the roster this year,” Lowe said on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “The only argument for over is that three of their starters are Cam Thomas, Michael Porter Jr. and Nick Claxton. Those are NBA-ready starters, and one of them, Cam Thomas, can handle the ball and run some offense. I just think, A, they’re all going to be trade candidates, and B, if you hand them an NBA team, a guard from them, 00 they have a rookie guard, 00 overall disastrous… The offense will be a mess.”

Nets owner Joe Tsai essentially admitted that his team is falling this season during a recent appearance on the All-In Podcast. Brooklyn’s 20.5 win projection is tied with the Washington Wizards for second-lowest in the NBA, according to DraftKings. Only the Utah Jazz (18.5) have a lower win total.

The Nets open the season on the road on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets.