At this point, with the Nets sinking out of contention for even the play-in round, it would seem appropriate to look to the future — especially with their next three games coming against teams entrenched in the playoffs.
The problem is that the future doesn’t look all that much better than the present.
Their record would put them in line for the eighth pick in this year’s NBA draft, but that pick belongs to Houston as a result of the trade that brought James Harden to Brooklyn. So does their first-round pick in 2026.
The Nets’ next first-round pick comes in 2025 — and it’s Phoenix’s pick from the Kevin Durant trade, which means it likely will be late in the first round.
As for what’s ahead for the Nets this season, it doesn’t figure to be pretty.
The Nets are coming off a road trip in which they dropped five of six games and on Tuesday, they’ll host Zion Williamson and the Pelicans, currently the fifth seed in the loaded Western Conference.
That’s followed by a trip to Milwaukee and a game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
So while the Atlanta Hawks continue to play poorly, which has given the Nets players a glimmer of optimism about extending their season beyond mid-April, the numbers aren’t promising.
But it doesn’t do the current Nets any good to dwell on how shaky things appear, so as unrealistic as a play-in berth seems, Cam Thomas believes it’s not out of reach.
“We’re still in the race for the last spot in the play-in, so whatever we’ve got to do, we’ve just got to pull together and try to string together these wins, because we’re right there,’’ Thomas said Sunday of the Nets, who are 4 ½ games behind Atlanta for the final play-in spot.
They still glance at the standings, which show Atlanta unable to pull away from them — which has surprised even the Nets.
“We’re still there, no matter how many times we lose and it’s crazy, honestly,” Thomas said. “Any other team, we would be out of it. But we’re still there, so that’s a plus.”
For new head coach Kevin Ollie, it provides something to shoot for.
“I do like our fight,” Ollie said following the loss to San Antonio. “I like how we played tonight and you know we just gonna continue to have that fight the rest of the way. I think the attention to detail was great tonight. We want to continue to have that and we gave ourselves a chance to win and that’s all we can ask for as a coach and a coaching staff.”
Thomas, for his part, is also trying not to give up on the rest of the season.
“We’ve just got to find a way to string together these wins and close out these games so we can have the opportunity,” Thomas said. “The season’s still alive for us with [14] games left. That’s a lot of time for us to make something shake, so we’ve just got to make it happen.”
— Additional reporting by Brian Lewis