Nets have ‘delusional confidence’ they can double projected win total…
Oddmakers project the Nets will win fewer than 25 games. The delusionally confident Nets assume they can win twice that many.
They’ve set it as a aim, speaking about it privately and now publicly.
“That’s the goal from Day 1. We said our goal is to get 50 wins,” Terance Mann said Monday when requested by The Post about attempting to steer a younger, inexperienced group that, heretofore, has no concept how one can win.
“So you’re going to have to go in there with the mentality that we’re going to get 50 wins. And that’s through the guys with years [of experience] leading that. Most of us came from winning situations, so we know what it takes, and that’s just what we’re going to do.”
Michael Porter Jr. (17) of the Brooklyn Nets places up a shot during the second half of a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Robert Sabo for NY Post
It’s the start of training camp, so hope springs everlasting. It just isn’t shared by many outdoors of the Nets locker room.
And they’re positive with that.
Their projected win total opened at just 19.5 and has climbed to 24.5 behind encouraging summers from 20-year-olds Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr., and what needs to be a potent frontcourt duo of vets Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle.
“Man, at the end of the day, we’re just trying to win,” Brown said.
Granted, they’re still projected to be among the league’s worst groups.
Still, Porter was the first Net to publicly predict a 50-win campaign. And even though he admits his reply was to a number one query by controversial streamer N3on, Porter said what he said, and is standing by it.
“Yeah, I mean the question was framed like he said, ‘Can you guys win 50 games?’ Of course I’m not going to say, ‘No, we can’t win 50 games,’” Porter said. “And I do genuinely consider you’re purported to go out on the flooring every evening with delusional confidence and compete to win. And I do assume we have the gamers that every single evening our aim needs to be to win. And we can win.
Julius Randle of the Brooklyn Nets speaks during a press convention at Brooklyn Nets Media Day at the Brooklyn Nets HSS Training Center in New York, Monday, September 28, 2026. Getty Images
“Yeah, obviously the NBA is stacked right now. The Eastern Conference is stacked. There’s a lot of good teams. But we definitely did nothing but get better last year. And there were a lot of games that we were in last year that we could’ve won. So for me, we have no choice but to go up. And why not shoot for the stars.”
The Nets would possibly have a better probability of reaching the stars than profitable 50 games, one thing they’ve completed precisely as soon as of their NBA historical past, en path to the 2002 Finals.
But Porter is true in that they needs to be better.
Their rookies suffered by means of the rising pains of a league-high 6,716 minutes last season. The only 4 groups in the past decade to play rookies more noticed their win totals soar by 10.5 victories the next season, and another ten wins the next.
Brooklyn Nets’ Terance Mann is photographed during Media Day at the HSS Training Center on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST
That — plus Randle’s on-ball scoring and ability as a floor-raiser — is why the incoming All-Star had vowed they can “shock the world.”
“It starts [Tuesday] with training camp and we just build from there. Stack days, continue to improve, come in with the right focus every single day. For me, when I do that and I’ve done that in my career, the teams that I’ve been a part of have done that… the results always follow,” Randle said. “We have nice management in the teaching workers with Jordi [Fernández] and everyone else. We have the expertise.
“It’s really just about the mindset, and not just coming in every single day, but coming in with intention and purpose, understanding things aren’t always going to be easy and knowing how to navigate those and showing up to work the same way whether you lose by 20 or win by 20, nothing changes, the process stays the same. So the biggest thing for us is just falling in love with the journey every single day, falling in love with the process and the results will follow.”
And sustaining that delusional confidence, even if the losses chip away at it.
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