Hey there, Last Night In Basketballers — I am, as I do every year, re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2026-27 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA) (Podcast)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Brooklyn Nets, who seem like they might be trying to be a real basketball team this year.
Julius Randle, floor raiser
Seven years ago, Randle landed with the New York Knicks as a glorified consolation prize when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving chose to sign with Brooklyn instead of New York. Here we are all these years later, and Randle is in Brooklyn a year after the Knicks won the title.
The circumstances aren't exactly the same, but they're somewhat similar. Randle is joining what has been a moribund franchise that is hoping to improve and become something that resembles a respectable basketball team. I think he can help them get there.
He's a player who limits a team's ceiling due to his various flaws (which we've seen in action in both New York and Minnesota), but his ability to handle a lot of usage at decent efficiency, as well as make plays for others, helps him raise a team's floor, particularly on offense.
If you can't run a functional offense in the NBA, you can't be a real team, and Randle can help you run a functional offense because he can be a better-than-replacement-level fulcrum around which you can build things. He's not going to get the Nets to become a good offense and he may not even get them to be an average one, but they shouldn't have the worst offense in the NBA like they did last season.
If they can improve to something like 22nd or even 24th in offensive efficiency, that'll go a long way toward helping them escape the doldrums of the Eastern Conference (which may be more difficult than the expect for reasons I'll get to later). It'll also help provide a more suitable environment in which to evaluate their various young players, which is a nice change of pace from what we've seen over the past couple of years.