124-90 in Charlotte: Brooklyn's New Era Opened Loud, With One Loud Caveat

The Brooklyn Nets have spent the better part of three and a half years being told what they aren't. On Tuesday night in Charlotte, they got to be something else for a couple of hours: a team that runs an opponent out of the gym. Brooklyn opened its 2026-27 preseason with a 124-90 demolition of the Hornets, cycling through every healthy body on the roster in a game that was effectively decided well before the final horn.

It was, on the surface, exactly the tone the organization wanted after back-to-back tanking seasons. "It's a new era in Brooklyn," NetsDaily framed it pregame, "and it should include less tanking, more winning."

The New Veterans Set the Tone

Jordi Fernandez rolled out a starting five of Egor Dëmin, Keon Ellis, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, and Day'Ron Sharpe — and the two headliners did the heavy lifting. Randle and Porter Jr. led the way in the rout, per Yahoo Sports, giving Brooklyn its first real look at the odd-couple pairing that arrived via one of the summer's more surprising transactions.

Randle's path to Brooklyn was a salary dump — the Nets took on the 31-year-old and a second first-round pick (No. 28, used on Joshua Jefferson) in a multi-team deal that sent Nic Claxton out of town. But the three-time All-Star arrives with real production behind the words: 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists across 79 games last season. He's also arrived with a message. Randle told rookie Mikel Brown Jr. the Nets would "shock the world," and he hasn't backed off since.

Porter Jr. is the more complicated piece. He posted the best year of his seven-year career in 2025-26 — 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.0 assists in 52 games before being shut down — but he and the Nets reportedly reached an impasse on a contract extension this summer. Rival executives have begun speculating about a trade, and rival fan bases (Portland, San Antonio, New Orleans) have noticed.

For now, though, he's a Net, and he looked like one on Tuesday.

The Caveat Wearing Street Clothes

The loudest absence in Charlotte was the quietest one: Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 6 overall pick, didn't play, still working back from a left ankle sprain he rolled before training camp even began. Joshua Jefferson was also held out with a stiff lower back.

The Nets have been conspicuously patient with Brown, and it's the right call for a franchise whose entire near-term outlook hinges on whether its young core — Brown, Dëmin, Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Danny Wolf — can grow into something real. Dëmin's rookie line (10.3 points, 3.3 assists in 25.1 minutes) offered a small proof of concept. Keon Ellis and Day'Ron Sharpe (8.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 60.1% shooting) give the bench a functional floor.

Fernandez has said he expects Brown to appear in the preseason, just not yet. That timeline matters more than any October scoreline.

What Tuesday Does and Doesn't Tell Us

Beating a rebuilding Hornets team by 34 in a preseason game is not a prophecy. Last season the Nets went 20-62, scored just 105.9 points per game, surrendered 115.9, and finished with a minus-10.0 point differential — a profile that landed them dead last in the site's power ratings at -15.88 points versus an average team, with key injuries to Claxton, Traoré, Powell, Ziaire Williams, Sharpe, and Wolf factored in.

The market's own number tells a similar story: Brooklyn's posted season win total sits at 24.5. In a NetsDaily poll this summer, 56% of fans predicted a 30-to-39-win season — a range that once bought a play-in ticket in the East.

So the honest read is this: the tank is over, the rebuild isn't. What Tuesday offered was a glimpse of the version of Brooklyn that could be genuinely annoying to play against — two proven scorers, a deep bench, and a coach willing to empty it. What it couldn't offer was Mikel Brown Jr., and until it can, the most compelling story in Brooklyn remains the one still waiting to get on the floor.