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Therefore, according to NBA insider Jake Fischer, they are expecting that players like Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle will draw significant trade offers so they could acquire more draft capital and young players for the rebuild process. "Brooklyn, I would still categorize as a team that is in more of a sell situation. I believe that Brooklyn will hope that a Julius Randle, a Michael Porter Jr. could still potentially draw some real returns," Fischer said. "The Nets, they don't have their draft pick this year and they're looking to be better and compete in the Eastern Conference, take some strides forward in the East.
Michael Scotto: Seven players had rookie team options declined for the 2027-28 season, making them unrestricted free agents in 2027: Tidjane Salaun (Hornets), Nikola Topic (Thunder), Isaiah Collier (Jazz), DaRon Holmes (Nuggets), Cody Williams (Wolves), Pacome Dadiet (Knicks), AJ Johnson (Pelicans).
Ian Begley: Knicks are outscoring Nets 26-9 in the fourth quarter to take control of the game. Josh Hart propelled Knicks early in the fourth as lineup of Hart, Tyler Kolek, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns gave club life after listless start. Knicks will improve to 3-4
Rod Boone: Good injury news: Kon Knueppel is out warming up in his pregame slot. Usually the final step before the return. He also finished off his workout with a dunk. Would guess he may be available on Wednesday in Brooklyn. If not, then it's Friday vs. Boston.
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Kristian Winfield: Jose Alvarado will play tonight against the Nets, says Mike Brown
Julius Randle’s oldest son never really stopped being a New York kid. Even after the family moved to Minnesota, he and his old buddies stayed on FaceTime every day and played video games together. Friends flew out to see him. He made trips back. They found ways to keep being kids together, whatever the distance. Now he’s back at his old school. The friendships maintained through screens and plane tickets are part of everyday life again. Randle’s wife has her circle of friends nearby, and the veteran forward has his own community outside basketball. Monday brings another visit to Madison Square Garden, this time in a Nets uniform. But the family’s homecoming is already well underway.
One win leaves plenty unresolved for the Nets. Monday’s visit to the Garden is the next test. Randle described a sense of stability away from basketball that makes the demands of the job easier to manage. “And when things are easier off the court, when they’re great at home and you’re happy and all of those things, it makes the basketball part, the work part that much easier,” Randle said.
That comfort reaches well beyond the familiarity of an arena where he played for five years. It’s in the people his family stayed close to while they were away, and the everyday life they have resumed here. “I feel really balanced, really happy, at peace here,” Randle said.
The Nets had been humiliated at home by this Pacers team a week ago. In Sunday’s rematch, they finally got their first win of the season. They scratched, clawed and defended their way to a 98-90 victory over shorthanded Indiana before a sellout crowd of 17,274 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Michael Porter Jr. led the way with a team-high 23 points to go with nine rebounds. Julius Randle had 20 points, six assists and five boards to go with a plus-17. Center Day’Ron Sharpe tallied his 20th career double-double with season highs of 15 points and 13 rebounds.
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Stefan Bondy: Jose Alvarado is officially listed as QUESTIONABLE for tomorrow's game against the Nets. He missed four games with a sprained ankle.
“If you didn't play here, if you didn't grow up here, and even if you do play here, you may not know what a ‘Tommy Point’ is,” Reynolds told Celtics On SI. “[It was] really just giving these guys a little window into how our fans view their play, and so we just [talked] about Tommy Heinsohn for a little bit, and then showed some plays over the years of Tommy getting excited for the guys getting on the floor, taking a charge, getting an offensive rebound, and connecting that to to the identity that we have as a group here.” The overtime win over Brooklyn showed just how much that message hit home. Sam Hauser and Baylor Scheierman both dove for a loose ball late in the third quarter of the game, waking up a sleepy crowd and triggering a run that sent the building into a frenzy and forced the Nets to call a timeout. As Mitchell Robinson walked back to the bench, he said “That’s a lot of Tommy Points out there.”
Julius Randle admits it’s on the veterans like himself and Michael Porter Jr. to help guide this young team through its growing pains. But how? “That’s a great question. I don’t know. We’ve just got to find ways to keep making improvements,” Randle said. “We did that, [though] we didn’t get the result we wanted in Boston, we did it. I felt like we were on the path to doing that to start the [Detroit] game, and then we took steps back. So, I won’t accept it, but I understand it. “Taking bumps and bruises with the season, just gaining experience. But we’ve got to find a way collectively to be better and not let adversity affect us so much as a group. We keep talking about it, but we gotta find a way to come together. And yeah, it probably is on the vets. We gotta bring guys together in the moments of adversity and recognize those situations quicker than what we are right now.”
