ORLANDO — The Nets are just starting their own teardown and tank.
Friday they got an up close look at what a rebuild should look like.
And the Nets can only hope it goes anywhere near as well.
The Nets didn’t so much get outworked as outclassed late by Orlando, 116-101, before a sellout crowd of 19,087 at Amway Center.
“For sure, for sure. Everybody wants to be in a position where they can play for a championship,” said Jalen Wilson. “Orlando was at a point in time where they were young and they lost a lot of games. The same guys came back and they’re just getting better.
“So you see the process. We’ve just got to buy into it, continue to grind, continue to show up even when days may be tough. And that’s part of the process, really.”
Brooklyn fell to 0-2, set to host the Bucks in Sunday’s home opener.
Clinging to a two-point lead in the third quarter, the Nets’ offense — shaky all evening — went ice-cold.
A three-plus minute scoreless drought and a 13-0 Magic run left the Nets in a hole they never recovered from.
They shot 42.2 percent overall.
Orlando is expected to challenge for 50 wins behind their two best players, Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, just 22 and 21 years old.
Wagner had 29 points, six rebounds and five assists, while Banchero had 15 points and nine assists.
“[Banchero is good at] everything. Very good player. You know, he can handle, he can set screens, handle screens, post up, ISO, his 3-point shot is good enough. He can play fast,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “It’s the whole package. So it’s a good challenge for us because we’ll try different things.
“We had Trae [Young] the other day there, which is like a smaller type of guard. And now we see a train that is coming to you really fast, and you have to try to stop it.
And for sure you’re not stopping a train by yourself. You need the whole team.”
Meanwhile, Nets guard Cam Thomas scored a team-high 24 points but once again feasted in garbage time.
After 20 of his 36 points in Wednesday’s season-opening loss came in the fourth quarter, two nights later he suffered through a five-point, 1 of 7 first half — guarded by Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — only to erupt for 12 in the fourth.
Dennis Schroder and Ben Simmons somewhat cleaned up their passing after committing 11 turnovers against the Hawks.
Schroder excelled, with 20 points, six assists and just two turnovers for a plus-6 on a night the Nets lost badly.
But Simmons was a minus-17 with five fouls, costly in a game that saw center Nic Claxton coming off the bench with a minutes limit and backup Day’Ron Sharpe sidelined altogether.
It proved costly.
As they had in the opening loss in Atlanta, the Nets started slow.
But they closed the first half on a 15-6 run — including 12 unanswered — to get back in the game.
They trailed 49-46 going into the locker room.
Simmons made three straight drives to open the first half to personally outscore Orlando, 7-0.
The third was initially called an offensive foul but a Fernandez challenge got it reversed to a foul on Banchero.
The and-one put the Nets ahead 53-49 with 10:39 left in the third.
But clinging to a 65-63 lead after a Thomas jumper, the Nets lost the momentum.
They conceded 13 unanswered by Orlando, with Gary Harris’ 3-pointer leaving them in a 76-65 hole they never recovered from.
Some silly fouls sent Simmons to the bench.
And with Claxton’s minutes restriction and Sharpe’s absence leaving Brooklyn threadbare in the frontcourt, they were ill-advised.
After a fairly clean first half, the Nets committed eight team turnovers in the third quarter to hand the Magic 15 points.
The Nets got outscored 32-25 in the third and never challenged in the fourth.