Jan. 15, 2026, 5:57 p.m. ET

NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets are coming off an unsuccessful three-game road trip as they weren’t able to earn victories over the Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, or New Orleans Pelicans. Brooklyn dealt with some injuries along the way that made winning those games more difficult than normal, but as they head back home, they can rest easy on the fact that most of the rotation will be available.

For Friday’s home matchup against the Chicago Bulls, the Nets announced that forward Ziaire Williams is out as he undergoes conditioning so that he can return to competition. Williams did not play in any of the three games on the road trip as he was dealing with an illness so it seems like the team is making sure that he isn’t getting back on the court without having his usual fitness.

Williams, 24, is averaging 9.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game while shooting 40.7% from the field and 31.3% from behind the three-point line in 29 games played this season. Williams’ counting stats are slightly down across the board from his career-best performance last season and his role within head coach Jordi Fernandez’s rotation has changed depending on how many players are available for a given game.

“Just staying ready, being the hardest worker out there, doing what I do best on defensive end, causing havoc, getting deflections and, just shoot it when I’m open,” Williams said to the media last month what asked what led to his success in December. However, in three of his last seven games in which he was available, Williams did not play as Fernandez chose to allocate playing time to others within the rotation.

Other than Williams, rookie Ben Saraf is out for Friday’s game against the Bulls as he remains on G League assignment, which makes sense given how Egor Demin and Nolan Traore have played at the point guard spot recently. Time will tell when Saraf will be called back up to Brooklyn with the idea of him getting NBA minutes, but that might have to come when the Nets are dealing with a number of injuries in the backcourt.

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