{"id":709562,"date":"2026-04-13T09:16:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709562\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T09:16:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T09:16:49","slug":"where-nets-finished-in-nba-draft-lottery-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709562\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Nets finished in NBA draft lottery standings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets are moving on from the tanking season to the true season.<\/p>\n

From losing to the lottery.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn is mercifully done with tanking, put out of their misery with a 136-101 thrashing before 18,778 in Toronto.<\/p>\n

But it remains to be seen what all of these beatings have bought them, if their tank works out.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you end this chapter and start with an exciting summer,\u201d coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cWhat we have ahead, it\u2019s amazing. The guys are excited, the coaches are excited; the front office, ownership, everybody is. So, we have something special in front of us, and we\u2019ve just got to go attack it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurn the page towards the summer, which is very, very exciting and very important for us. \u2026 A summer that we have to get a lot of work done, develop; and the draft obviously, and free agency. A lot of exciting things that could happen. We\u2019ve just got to be ready to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynBen Saraf of the Brooklyn Nets handles the ball during the game against the Toronto Raptors on April 12, 2026 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Nets finished 20-62, matching their 2016-17 mark. They didn\u2019t even have their draft pick at that point, thanks to fired general manager Billy King having traded it away to Boston. But their win total jumped by eight the next season, and then by 14 with a playoff berth the next.<\/p>\n

Better luck this time could spur an even quicker turnaround. They\u2019ll have the third-best lottery odds, with a 14 percent chance of winning and 40.1 percent shot at landing a top three pick. Their likeliest landing spots are sixth (26.0) and fifth (14.8).<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019m not going to lie and say I\u2019m not nervous going into that. I\u2019m nervous for where the ping-pong balls land,\u201d GM Sean Marks told YES Network. \u201cBut at the end of the day, if you\u2019ve done your work, if you\u2019re prepared \u2026 and I give [assistant GM] B.J. Johnson and the rest of our amateur scouting department a lot of credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re going to be prepared wherever they fall. Obviously, we hope for as high as possible, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s exciting for us to see what other piece do we add to our team and then go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top teams in each conference \u2014 Boston and Detroit in the East, San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West \u2014 were built through the draft. And largely through tanking.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a dicey practice. Despite the Pistons\u2019 tank lasting four years and Charlotte\u2019s far longer, the Nets are hoping theirs goes quicker.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, part of drafting five guys to begin with was let\u2019s try and expedite the build. Let\u2019s build as soon as we can, find out who these next Nets are as soon as we possibly can. That\u2019s the same for this offseason,\u201d Marks said. \u201cIt could be vets, it could be via trade, it could be via free agency. We don\u2019t know that yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I don\u2019t want five-, six-, seven-year rebuilds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MalachiBrooklyn Nets Malachi Smith (18) dribbles against Toronto Raptors Immanuel Quickley (5) during the first half at Scotiabank Arena. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Nic Claxton added, \u201cNext year, with us not having our pick, it\u2019s time for some expectations to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

That lines up with league observers saying the Nets are expected to at least check in on any stars that become available this summer, even if they don\u2019t bid. They\u2019ll need to be prepared, because the lottery is capricious.<\/p>\n

If Marks or Fern\u00e1ndez need a reminder of just how fickle, they need only listen to David Fizdale on a recent appearance with Run It Back on FanDuel TV, recalling how he took over the Knicks in 2018 with a mandate to tank. His bosses were eyeing Zion Williamson or Ja Morant in the draft, and promised to ink Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving the following summer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In the end, they fell to third and settled for RJ Barrett. Durant and Irving both spurned them for Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t come to fruition, losing all them damn games, donating my record to get Zion Williamson or Ja,\u201d said Fizdale.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people seemed to have thought for sure KD and Kyrie for sure was coming to us. That s\u2013t didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nets fans already know all about s\u2013t not working out.<\/p>\n

Maybe in next month\u2019s lottery, it finally will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets are moving on from the tanking season to the true season. From losing to the lottery.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,6,249,671,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-709562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-draft-lottery","14":"tag-nets","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}