Nets projected starting lineup for opening night of 2025-26 NBA season

The Brooklyn Nets have had an interesting 2025 NBA offseason given the amount of moves that they made with the 2025 NBA Draft and free-agency. Brooklyn not only selected a record-breaking five players in the Draft, but they also conducted a couple of trades to bring in veterans in forward Terance Mann from the Atlanta Hawks and forward Michael Porter Jr. from the Denver Nuggets.

The Nets are still in the early stages of their full-scale rebuild after beginning the process last summer by trading guard Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in exchange for multiple first-round picks. After finishing the 2024-25 campaign with a 26-56 record, Brooklyn made sure to alter the roster with mostly young talent while also addressing some of the flaws.

As of this writing, the Nets have 18 players on the roster, but that figure includes forward Ziaire Williams and center Day'Ron Sharpe, who were reportedly re-signed, but their transactions are still considered as pending. More to the point, for the purposes of this article to project the starting lineup for next season, the assumption will be that guard Cam Thomas will be re-signed at some point in the future.

Point Guard: Egor Demin

At this point in the offseason, the Nets have more than a few players that could fill the starting point guard spot aside from Demin, the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Not only did Brooklyn bring in Demin through the Draft, but general manager Sean Marks and company also took Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf, two players that will compete for the starting PG spot as well.

Shooting Guard: Cam Thomas

Thomas is still unsigned as of this writing, but with the way his free-agency is going, it seems inevitable that he will re-sign with Brooklyn, unless something unforeseen happens between now and training camp. There have been some indications that Thomas won't be able to get the money he's looking for this summer so if he does re-sign with the Nets, the nature of those negotiations could dictate how next season looks.

Small Forward: Michael Porter Jr.

Small forward will be an interesting position to monitor between now and when the season begins given that head coach Jordi Fernandez could go a number of ways with both forward spots. At this point, Porter is a lock to be in the starting lineup, but if he plays at SF, that could allow Noah Clowney to remain as the starting power forward. However, if Porter is slotted in at PF, that could make way for Mann or Williams to be the starting SF.

Power Forward: Noah Clowney

Clowney showed some signs of improvement in his game last season, including the way that he was able to stretch the floor from the three-point land after being asked to be more of a shooter. At the same point, Clowney not only dealt with his fair share of injuries, but he also showed that he has to keep getting stronger and improving on his ability to finish at the basket when he's run off the three-point line.

Center: Nic Claxton

Similar to Thomas and Porter, Claxton is virtually guaranteed of being in the starting lineup due to him being one of the best players on the team along with being one of the most experienced on the roster as well. Claxton is coming off another solid season in the NBA and assuming that he is on the roster at the beginning of the season, the former Georgia Bulldog will be manning the middle.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets projected starting lineup for opening night of 2025-26 NBA season