After making history by becoming the first team ever to select five players in the first round of a draft, the Nets will begin the challenge of integrating all those new faces into the program when training camp opens this week, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscription required). Egor Demin, Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf provide a young infusion of talent that offers hope to a rebuilding franchise.
“This is great. It was a unique opportunity for us, to be quite frank,” general Sean Marks said this summer. “We’ve never had five picks in one draft. To be able to draft all of them in a draft class we just saw, that was unique. That was something we want to take advantage of, especially in our build, where we see these young men fitting into our group and into our roster. So, it was about us capitalizing on the hand we were dealt.”
The top prospect in that group is Demin, a 6’9″ guard out of BYU who was chosen with the No. 8 pick. The 19-year-old Russian native provided a pleasant surprise with his shooting during Summer League, but his play-making was limited because he wasn’t featured exclusively in an on-ball role due to the number of lead guards on Brooklyn’s team in Las Vegas.
Traoré, Powell, Saraf and Wolf may see limited minutes as rookies, and it’s possible that all of them could spend time with the team’s G League affiliate in Long Island.
“The preseason with the team, getting to know everyone and making sure to know (everyone) basketball-wise (is huge),” Traoré said. “As a point guard, I’d say that it’s important to know these guys and know what they like and just start to build the team right way.”
Depending on how the final roster shakes out, Lewis notes that the Nets have a chance to eclipse the 2022/23 Rockets as the youngest team in NBA history. In addition to the five first-rounders, Brooklyn recently traded for 2023 first-round pick Kobe Bufkin, who turns 22 today. Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney are both 21, while Fanbo Zeng, who is expected to sign soon, is 22.
It presents another challenge for second-year head coach Jordi Fernandez, who had the third-youngest team in the league last season.
“That’s definitely on me. Player development is going to be important. We’ve been very diligent,” Fernandez said. “The coaching staff has done a great job making our guys work, and those guys have improved. And we believe (the rookies) will do the same thing.”
Which of these talented Nets’ trios would you rather have on your team if you could transport them from the yr in question to the present day?
Nolan Traore/Cam Thomas/Danny Wolf 2026
Bojan Bogdanovic/Thad Young/Mase Plumlee 2015
Mookie Blaylock/Chris Morris/Chris Dudley 1991
Devin Harris/Ryan Anderson/Brook Lopez 2010
Kobe Bufkin/Egor Demin/Nic Claxton 2026
I mean it’s obviously Blaylock and friends.
It’s honestly not a worse idea than anything else that franchise could do at this point. It’s still not a high percentage move, any of those youngsters could flame out just as much as they could become a rotation regular. I like it for only the Nets though, other teams should not try and run as many 18-21 year olds as they can.
And still lack a superstar prospect
A G-league team ……. this should never happen in NBA. The whole point of having a G-league. Is so this can’t happen in NBA. Teenagers don’t belong in NBA. This ain’t the Euro Leagues.
They have MPJ and Cam Thomas who can score 50PPG plus Claxton. Those are not G league dudes.
You can put up 50 shots ……. two oneway players nobody wants ……. NBA is not a developmental league. Its pro game you pkay to win. Not just show up ……
If I recall correctly, the Thunder had a very young team this year. I’m not saying the Nets are anywhere near their level but a few years ago the Thunder was also the team that could take salary dumps.
“Teenagers don’t belong in NBA. This ain’t the Euro Leagues.”
There aren’t that many teenagers in “the Euro Leagues”, and even players in their early 20s don’t feature very often. Highly rated teenagers who make it into youth national teams play for various clubs, but overall, teenagers don’t have a big role in the Euroleague, or in top domestic leagues. Teenagers in basketball generally have a much smaller role than in football (soccer) over here in Europe.
In the Euroleague final 4, in the two semifinals, the youngest player who started the game was 23, and the second youngest was 28. Yep, that’s right. Only one out of 20 players who started the semis was younger than 28. Olympiacos starters were 31, 32, 35, 30 and 33. The average age in the final 4 was above 30 years old.
The first games of the NBA conference finals featured 11 out of 20 starters who were under age 28, for comparison.
Euroleague is an old man’s league, compared to the NBA. The reason is pretty simple: all the best young players from around the world who are good enough to play as teenagers get drafted and play in the NBA. Domestic leagues around Europe also tend to have a higher average age than the NBA, and often much higher.
This happens in every sport.
How does Sean Marks keep his job? It was only 2.5 months ago when Marks was saying that having 5 first-round picks in an super-strong draft would catapult the Nets into contention.
Instead, he announces a reset to the lowest possible expectations, a virtual guarantee the Nets won’t contend for the playoffs for at least 3 more years.
Whether it’s the right or wrong move at this stage is beside the point. The Nets have already spent the last 3 seasons in rebuilding. Resetting a rebuild is the ultimate sign of failure for a GM in any sport
The only GM’s more inept than Marks in the last 40 years are Elgin Baylor with the Clippers and Danny Ainge with the Jazz.
To be fair, they have collected a lot of draft capital in Brooklyn. Most of the criticism is about how they drafted this year. But if some of those picks start working out, the perception will quickly change.
I agree, at some point you have to just cash in the picks and see what you have. If all these picks somehow are NBA-level players, the Nets could be quite good again in a couple years.
Lol @ listing Chris Dudley!!!
1991-92 had Kenny Anderson, Derrick Coleman, Drazen Petrovic (RIP) Mookie Blaylock & Chris Morris.
That team made the playoffs, losing to Cavs in 1st rd. Petro made All-NBA 3rd team then died in a car crash that summer.
Still Nets went out and hired Chuck Daly who got NJ to playoffs next two seasons though not past 1st round. Lost to Cavs again and then the Knicks.
They added Jason Williams and PJ Brown to the frontcourt. Then Daly stepped down and the Nets plummeted to 30 wins in 1994 and 1995 with pretty much the same roster.
Oh Brendan Byrne Arena, how much that place sucked.
Oh, it did …
As one of the six Net fans in the world, I’d rather they do this than the quick fixes of KG and Paul Pierce ( the Brooklyn NYETS under Prokorov lol)or Kyrie and friends. (Although, if Durant wore his proper shoe size, that’s a 3 and Milwaukee is eliminated!)
Jordi is a teacher, so if the team stinks, so be it. There’s no Marbury for Kidd trade right now anyway, and we’re not close to competing yet. Let ’em ball and see what’s up.
Nets are all in for 2026 draft which is supposed to be the deepest in 20 years.
They’ll let MPJ score 25PPG, up his value and then trade him for even more cap space next summer.
Claxton could be moved too for the right price. He can be a difference maker on the right team.
They obviously have no idea what to do with Cam Thomas. If he can lower his usage % and stay efficient they may still offet him an extension.
> They’ll let MPJ score 25PPG, up his value and then
> trade him for even more cap space next summer.
That’s doubtful. Michael Porter Jr is probably the most overpaid player in the NBA. That’s why Denver gave the Nets an unprotected first-round pick to take him.
Porter Jr’s current contract has him making $41M/yr next season, about $15M more than anybody would be willing to pay him. Porter Jr will be on the Nets roster in 2026-27. Book it.
Not to mention what an off-court disaster Porter is. MPJ and his brother might be two of the lowest intelligence-level players in NBA history, along with Pat Bev. Those 3 guys are actual morons IRL. Like, if you run into them and ask them anything about anything, even hoops, you will see it.
Young guys need all star level vets to learn from. Walking onto a team where you’re already one the better players hinders development in my opinion. We see picks 15-30 contribute to teams in long playoff runs, why? Got guys pushing them every day in all aspects, not just between the lines. Taking all five picks was a mistake, me thinks.
Yeah, just like young GS 1st rounders – Wiseman, Kuminga, Moody, Patrick Baldwin Jr., Podz have flourished under the caring wing of Draymond and other older All-Stars (Klay, Wiggins, CP3, Steph).
Young players need coaching and a competent team with a plan for their future. And some players, like Brunson, just have it in them, while others simply don’t.
Peter, insert tongue in cheek :—) That’s a withering, but true, criticism.
The fact is that veterans, no matter how professional or well-intentioned about their younger teammates, don’t want to be replaced.
Meanwhile, in a rebuild young players do best when they can play loose, with less pressure to win games, and without the threat of losing playing team to veterans.
Sean Marks sucks.