The Brooklyn Nets began their season last night against the Atlanta Hawks, but they still don’t have extremely high expectations for the rest of the year.

Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey ranked all 30 NBA teams before the season and placed the Nets at No. 26.

“Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith both have the kind of three-and-D, low-usage games that should be easily portable to other schemes, and they’re on reasonable contracts,” Bailey writes. “Contenders might be interested in adding the shooting of Bojan Bogdanović or the slashing of Dennis Schröder, too. That leaves just one, 6’10” playmaking domino in Ben Simmons who has plenty to prove between now and the trade deadline. … Brooklyn might be able to turn Simmons into one or two more assets. From there, no matter how many tough jumpers Cam Thomas hits, the Nets will be in the mix for a loss on just about every night they play.”

The only teams that ranked lower than the Nets were the Detroit Pistons, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards.

The Nets have a long season ahead of them, but instead of focusing on wins and losses, they can prioritize development and learning how to coexist in new coach Jordi Fernandez’s system.

The Nets are back in action tomorrow when they take on the Orlando Magic at the Kia Center.

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