The Brooklyn Nets have made moves to accelerate their rebuilding process. See why leading scorer Michael Porter Jr. thinks the team could take the league by storm.
This offseason, the Brooklyn Nets made some significant upgrades to the front court and bench unit.
Julius Randle was added just before the draft to compliment Michael Porter Jr. on the perimeter, while rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. looks to revitalize Brooklyn's backcourt alongside Egor Dëmin.
But, most projections still have Brooklyn residing in the basement of the reloaded Eastern Conference.
In late-August, ESPN's group of NBA Insiders compiled record predictions for each NBA team, with the Nets finishing with the worst record in the league (18-64).
But, multiple players on the team have talked about exceeding these low expectations, with Porter being the most recent.
"I don't know what the expectations are for our team," Porter said on popular streamer N3on's stream on Tuesday. "But, we're going to definitely surpass them."
N3on followed up, asking if Porter thought the team will hit the 50-win mark, to which he said "I do."
This would certainly be a remarkable turnaround from last season, but improvements are definitely expected.
Hitting 50 wins would also be historic for the franchise, who has hit the half-century mark just once in it's history (52 wins in 2001-2002).
Both Porter and Randle have talked about how they believe their playstyles compliment each other, which is apparently true.
Randle's ability to draw double teams on drive and play physical in the paint will allow Porter to play off-the-ball more often and get free for jumpshots on the outside.
Dëmin's improvement this offseason is exciting as well, as the former BYU product was a member of the All-Summer League Second Team.
As the leader of Brooklyn's offense, Dëmin averaged 21.0 points, 4.3 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals across three games, shooting the 3-pointer efficiently and scoring from all three levels.
His 3-point shooting has been a pleasant surprise up to this point, as perimeter shooting was one of his biggest question marks coming out of Provo.
After shooting just 27.3-percent from beyond the arc in college, Dëmin's 38.5-percent clip from 3-point range last season was the highest 3-point field goal percentage by a qualified rookie in Nets history.
His highest 3-point output came back in late December against the Golden State Warriors, exploding for seven makes from distance, a Nets rookie record.
One week later, Dëmin caught fire trailing against the Orlando Magic, making five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead a storming comeback.
With Brown alongside him, Dëmin will be able to spot up off-the-ball more often, giving him the opportunity to make opposing defenses pay.
With other talents like Danny Wolf and Nolan Traore entering the year with another offseason under their belts, Brooklyn's bench unit should be deep.
The combination of these emerging talents with former All-Stars like Randle should spell major improvements for the Nets.
