The Nets made the unprecedented move of drafting five rookies in the first round. Could they have their own version of the ‘Fab Five,’ the celebrated all-freshman lineup for the University of Michigan in the early ’90s?
“We’re gonna have to prove ourselves,” said Danny Wolf, who played for Michigan last season. “The Fab Five arguably is one of the best college teams of all time, so if we can consider ourselves the Fab Five of the NBA at some point in time, that would be pretty cool. But I’ll leave it up to you guys [in the media] to give us a nickname.”
The highest of those draft picks was the No. 8 selection, BYU guard Egor Demin.
“This is special,” Demin said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Obviously no other team ever did the same thing in the draft. I think for me and the other guys it’s important to be really as close as we can be to each other, not just to compete, which obviously is a big part of it, but also to learn from each other on the court and off the court and learn from the older guys on the team and try to find ways to be together and play together as fast as we can.”
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Has time made Kevin Durant more wistful about his days with the Nets? Durant and former coach Steve Nash discussed their Brooklyn experiences during LeBron James‘ ‘Mind the Game’ podcast (hat tip to Collin Helwig of Nets Daily). “I felt like we had great intentions. I felt like we cared enough. I feel like every day we were trying to push towards winning the champ. It was a great vibe in there. Some of the best times,” KD said. “That first year? That’s why I signed that deal. That first year, man, most fun ball I had. Some of the most fun ball I had playing my whole life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Brooklyn a lot. I love playing for Brooklyn, but it’s just so much stuff happened around the guys that were committed to the situation. It felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn’t.”
- The Nets made a number of their offseason moves official on Tuesday but there’s still no resolution on Cam Thomas, who remains a restricted free agent. There have been no rumblings regarding another team preparing an offer sheet for him and the Nets apparently don’t want to overpay to keep him, according to Nets Daily. In an interview with Connor Long on the ‘Brooklyn Boys’ podcast, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested the Nets might be playing hardball with Thomas. “I would say Cam Thomas wants to be paid and apparently the Nets aren’t eager to pay him.”
- With his offensive skills, Wolf plays like a guard in a center’s body. Wolf slipped to the No. 27 pick and might be a steal. “Danny, we talked about the high IQ and a skill set that’s very unique for a person his size,” GM Sean Marks said, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link). “So, to see him out there, other teams continue trying to figure out, well, ‘How do we stop him? Who do we guard him with? What system do we put around him?’ And that’s a unique problem to have, right?”
Who is everyone else Mr. KD?
Harden and kyrie I assume
No one on earth is ever good enough for Kevin Durant, so you can just pick a name and you’d be right.
Are our random assortment of mediocre first round picks equal to some great players all of whom had great careers? No F***ing WAY. Just the idea is idiotic. They will be lucky if they get 1 rotation player out of the 5 picks…
Agreed. I still can’t believe they did this. This is fireable. I can’t explain this other than guaranteeing that they will lose games.
So that would in time make them the “forgettable 5”.
They will get one of 5. When you’re a bad team, you can afford to put unproven dudes in rotation. Heck 3 of em may stick. Don’t sleep on the BROOKLYN NETS, nba !
Dont try and hype your poo poo platter of meh prospects as equivalent to all time players. They over drafted Egor by like 8 spots and the most interesting one is probably wolf, although he has big bust potential.
The team has no stars and didnt draft the type of upside guys that you should be if your taking 5 picks to try and get a real star. They are basically just hoping for lottery luck next year and if they fall it could be a while before they could get a build around talent. Like most drafts arent going to have 3 guys that would go 1st in most drafts.
Over drafted? Based on what? Your expert rankings and projections? If you can’t comprehend what the draft is and how it works, maybe don’t comment?
No the fact that all the draft experts said it was as it happened. On top of that he was on the real experts boards in the 12-18 range mostly 16. They took ostensibly 5 PG with their 5 1sts all of which they are rostering, because development works well like that when you try to let 5 rookie PG play. Most boards and me would have taken Sorber, Essengue, Bryant, Coward, Maluach, Traeore, and CMB over Demin.
Also 2 of those picks were in the very back of the first so WTF are we talking about here. This isnt some star studded draft outcome they didnt get Flagg or Harper. Like 3 of the fab 5 had decade + careers where they were top of the league and one made the HOF I doubt all 5 of the BRK picks make it to year 3 on a bad team. I would bet almost any amount of money none make the HOF so again comparing this meh draft with no pick above 8 and Traeore being the better ranked prospect at 19 than the one they took at 8. Yeah Im going to say you will be lucky if you get a playoff calibre 6th man out of all 5…
Demin was weird for how high he got picked. They probably could have taken somebody else at 8, then if he was off the board by 19, combine 19 + one of their picks in the 20s and trade for him.
Traore, to me, is a prime candidate to be out of the league before signing his 2nd contract. Hope I’m wrong, though.
But it’s always like that, if one of 5 turns out good, you’re happy. Wizards had 4 guys drafted in the first round last year, and if 1 of them has a good career, they will do well. Rockets picked 4 in a much stronger 2021 draft, only one is still on the team, but I’m sure they’re pleased with the outcome.
I have heard multiple times, or maybe read.
Nba Coaches have a hard time dealing with 2-3 rookies on a roster. Training, bad habits, need examples.
Much less these 5 plus whowever comes in as a 1st or 2nd year g-leaguer.
For their sake, i hope the rest of the team is all vets.
and Cam Thomas is your vet
I was shocked by their using 5 FRPs. BUT, looking at draft night, I can only fault the BKN FO for taking on Mann’s contract to add #22 when they already had #19, #26 and #27. This was never a deep draft, where very many teams (if any) were likely to value picks in the 20’s to the level of future FRPs (even with lottery protection/conversion) or a significant trade up in this draft. So why go get another one? It’s not like they got some incredible bargain for selling the cap space on Mann.
Beyond that, though, BKN’s critics have no case. The other three FRPs (19, 26 and 27) they were stuck with. What should they have done with those 3 picks? Forefeit them? Do almost the functional equivalent of that by trading them for remote SRPs at a discount? The had #36 as well which they used to add to their stockpile of SRPs. Picks at the bottom of the first round had less value than in any draft I can remember (only #23 was traded, and that was as an enhancer to swap #12 with next year’s higher of NOP/MIL).
As for use of the picks, overall, I think did pretty well. I like what they did at #8. Only the C’s (KM and DQ) have higher upside than Demin. Of the later guys I like Traore and Wolf. Saraf I haven’t seen. Powell is about what you got in this draft at that spot. It’s NOT a great draft by them because they didn’t have great picks. Volume matters, but not when almost all if it so late in a shallow draft.
Why are you declaring what prospects have the most upside? This is literally an unknown, and people whose job it is to figure it out most of the time fail. The level of narcissism on this forum should merit institutionalization.
What will be achieved in the future is the unknown. Whereas “upside” at any point in time is one’s opinion of what might be achieved in the future. I’m putting for my opinion. I could put “IMO” before every sentence of my post, or I could assume that on a posting board it’s assumed.
Presumptious is the word you are looking for, not narcissism. EG your calling NBA fans narcissists for providing their opinions is presumptious.
Narcissists have high opinions of themselves, often by putting down others. Projection?
Anyhow. Have fun storming the castle!
Its not an unknown at all prospects in the 1-5 range usually work as NBA players with long careers. Below that its far less frequent. Occasionally you have a Giannis or Joker falling, but its a total crap shoot where the guys that.
There is a very high likelihood that Flagg will be a quality starter on a title worthy team. There is a very low likelihood that Demin will. You get that theres a reason he was 1 overall and it wasnt even a questing right? This isnt like baseball where you draft 40 guys and most dont work out, but almost all spend 4-6 years in the minors developing and guys can jump each other. NBA players go straight to the majors at 19 and we really do know pretty well who will succeed and who wont. Most top picks that are busts were because of injury, and most picks after 10 never do s***. Of course there are exceptions, but what about the players BRK has drafted in the last 3 years makes you think they have some special sauce for finding them? Not a lot worthwhile they have picked since Claxton/Thomas and neither of them are even anything special.
A team that has drafted poorly recently goes against consensus to “over draft” a player, and then does one of the more head scratching draft selections of 5 PG ever. What are we missing homer?
BKN hasn’t drafted poorly. They’ve drafted LATE and not at all due to trades and winning too many games.
2020 – no pick.
2021 – Thomas and Sharpe (in the 20’s)
2022 – no pick
2023 – Whitehead and Clowney (in the 20’s)
2024 – no pick
3 of the 4 guys they picked (all late in the first round) will be extended under multi-year contracts. Clowney and Whitehead are up next year. Clowney is a keeper (best of the 4), Whitehead has been hurt. I don’t like Thomas, but call him at pick #27 bad drafting is quite a standard.
The depth in this draft in the 12-30 range really got hammered when a bunch of interesting players choose to return to school since the NIL money is quite a bit more than a 2nd round rookie deal.
I think they tried to trade down or out of some picks, or combine and trade up, but nobody was willing to play ball.
That’s my point. I’m sure that, on draft day, they tried to trade up or forward with their extra late FRPs, but there was nothing, as evidenced by OKC’s booty for pick #24.
My other point is I don’t think you acquire a 4th FRP in 8 slots at the bottom of the round unless you know for a fact you can deal one or more of them. That’s all I can fault them for. With the picks in hand on draft day, I wouldn’t have traded any of their FRPs for what OKC got (top 17 protected next season for one year, then converts to a SRP).
The Nets just need a couple of the first round picks to hit out of the ten they have acquired directly and indirectly from the KD trade.
I think the Nets drafted 5 high IQ players that are really good to great passers. Fernandez is a fantastic coach. Cam Thomas is an elite scorer. This is a team that will be able to play fast in transition but also fast pace in the half court similar to the Pacers. I predict a lot of people are going to be very surprised by how good Brooklyn is. Also predict Wolf will be 1st Team All Rookie
So how exactly are your 5 rookie PG going to each get enough development min?
Powell is 6’6″ with a 7 foot wingspan and a 43″ vertical, Saraf is 6’6″ and Demin is 6’9″. All 3 can play a wing. Traore will likely initiate the offense when he’s in the game and Wolf is 7 feet tall and maybe the best passer of the bunch. I think at least 4 could all play at the same time