The Brooklyn Nets had plenty of optimism coming into the season, but it might already be gone. 

On Sunday night, the Nets capped off a back-to-back with a loss to the Dallas Mavericks. After blowing a lead in Atlanta on Saturday night, the Nets were never in the game in Dallas, eventually falling 130-93. 

A 37-point defeat on the road was yet another example of how far the Nets still have to go to be anywhere near the team they were hoping to be when the season began. After an encouraging preseason performance and some competitive matchups to begin the regular season, the Nets look right back at home in the lottery. 

The bottom of the Eastern Conference standings has become familiar territory for the Nets, given that the team hasn’t played in a postseason contest since 2023. After a 2-8 start to this season, it seems like the Nets are destined to make it a fourth straight year without postseason basketball. 

Coming into the season, the Nets were expected to be one of the worst teams in the league, with a preseason win total of 25.5. The Nets won 25 games last season, so simply improving on that mark whatsoever would be a hit for the over. 

Considering the Nets added Julius Randle, Mikel Brown Jr. and others, it seemed like Brooklyn should have no problem simply being one game better than last year’s tanking squad. Instead, Jordi Fernandez’s squad has looked mostly the same, despite actually trying to win this season. 

Thanks to the weak Eastern Conference and a logjam in the bottom half of the standings, the Nets are still only one game out of the play-in through 10 games. That should change over time as teams start to gain some separation, so the Nets can’t be fooled by the games back column in the standings. 

A major turnaround would be needed for the Nets to be in that race as the season progresses, given that the franchise ranks 28th in offense and 19th in defense. Brooklyn’s foundation under Fernandez has been all about defense, so being nearly 10 spots higher there is somewhat encouraging, but it won’t matter if Brooklyn can’t find its way out of having a bottom-three offense in the league, which has dragged the team down to the 24th-ranked net rating. 

The season is only a couple of weeks in, and there’s more than enough time to turn things around, but Brooklyn has so far proven to be the team folks were expecting.