Scouting SCOUT — Episode 4 of pre-draft series takes us Inside Brooklyn Nets NBA Draft

The script for the Brooklyn Nets’ pre-draft series SCOUT is coated with the words “disagree and commit.” Now in episode four, our first one after a draft which saw the team disregard suggestions from Jay Bilas and a lot of other pundits, the theme is even more enforced.

“One of our slogans is ‘disagree and commit.’ I mean, that’s front and center in our war room,” said Sean Marks in the new episode. “The meaning behind that is that it’s healthy to disagree, it’s healthy to debate. If there’s no debate and there’s no disagreement

then I think something must be wrong, right?”

And while the Nets had and have an abundance of individuals outside the building disagreeing with them and their approach to the draft, the team simply doesn’t care. The Brooklyn Nets are doing things their way. Disagree if you want. They’ve committed.

Early Sights and Scenes

Episode four quickly flipped us through a handful of pre-draft events — as you’d expect for a series in this style. Every TV mini-series catches you up before moving on. We briefly entered a few May scout meetings, the lottery, and then the combine.

We also got our first view of David Koch Jr., one of the Koch family members who bought into the team last year and is now a basketball operations assistant at HSS.

Although the Nets had all their screens from 60-inch televisions to laptos to smartphones blurred out, the team did show a whiteboard with “BROOKLYN GRIT” written and underlined early on in the May meetings. Under it the words “COMPETITIVE,” “SELFLESS,” and “RELENTLESS.”

The Nets producers took us inside the team’s pre-draft workouts. The episode showed the shoes, backs of heads, hands, and shadows of attendees, not enough information to identify who’s who aside from Dëmin in one shot. We did get to hear from Assistant Head Coach Dutch Gaitley, however, who seemed to be running the workout depicted and offered the prospects some advice on the grueling pre-draft schedule.

“First off thank you guys. Alright. That was great,” he said. “What I would challenge you guys to do right now — ask questions of us. Utilize these resources that you have, cold tub, hot tub, this is going to be a long process for you guys. You got to take care of your bodies.

“You’re going to have a draft workout tomorrow, maybe in a week. You’re going to have a lot of these. Take care of your bodies. Whatever we can do for you, just let us know. We will do it. Thank you for being Brooklyn Nets for a day.”

Pre-Draft Interviews

Now let’s get into the juicy stuff. Going one-by-one through Brooklyn’s eventual picks, the episode allowed us to hear from scouts or coaches pitching players to the overall draft team. It also included a few bits from everyone’s pre-draft interview (minus Saraf, who was playing overseas until the second night of the Draft. He didn’t workout in Brooklyn.)

“Egor, 6’9” guy that can handle the ball, checks all of our boxes, huge believer in the upside,” said scout and Long Island Nets GM Matt MacDonald of the eighth overall pick. Then, the video took the viewer inside Demin’s pre-draft interview.

“I have this kind of picture of what player I see myself being,” said a relaxed Dëmin, sitting down with Marks, assistant GMs B.J. Johnson and Andy Birdsong as well as assistant coach Juwan Howard. “I think I’m looking forward, just building, this kind of a project of being myself, learning and taking as much as I can from people around me.”

Nolan Traoré, the speedy French ball-handler taken 11 picks after Dëmin was next.

“His ability to just get by guys, it stood out to me,” said scout Akbar Waheed of Traoré. “Elite first step, could touch the paint wherever he wanted, and he has vision.”

“Passion,” Traoré said when asked about his motivation in the interview. “I think that’s just passion. Like, I really love the game. I’m just passionate and I just want to be the best.”

At No. 22, Drake Powell who was taken with the Hawks pick that had been traded to the Nets but was not yet official.

“I guy I would nominate is Drake Powell,” said Shawn McCullion, a veteran Nets scout. One of his colleagues, Richard Midgely, added. “I like the IQ. I do think he has positional size and length, competitiveness, and defensive versatility.”

“Come in and compete,” Powell told the group in the interview room. “Compete everyday. Win as many games as I can and just have a chip on my shoulder. I feel like I have the belief in myself that I’m the player that I am, and so I’m going to put my full focus towards that and just continue to grow.”

Ben Saraf, step right up.

“Ben Saraf, just an upside player, young point guard with size,” said Drew Nicholas who had been director of scouting for the Nuggets before joining Brooklyn. “I think he’s got a little bit of flare to the game.”

“He’s a hard worker,” added Simone Casali, Nets International Scouting Director. “When we’re talking about, like, love for the game, he has that.”

Danny Wolf, close us out.

“I’ve never seen a seven-footer, 250 (pounds) move like that and play like that,” Midgley said of Wolf. “Like, he is a primary ball-handler.”

“I think I can be a sponge at first,” Wolf said to Fernández, Johnson, and Howard among others. “You guys have lots of different experiences in your locker room from guys of all different cloths, and just being able to learn different bits and pieces to the point where I’m the guy that when the young guys are coming in I can be that leader, whenever that time comes.”

After the Draft

We did get Saraf after the draft, along with a few other bits of commentary from the group now dubbed the “Flatbush Five.”

“It was pretty crazy,” said Saraf who arrived from Germany after the Draft concluded. “I had some ups and downs obviously because I got drafted and then I had the final game in the German league, and we lost it, but overall it was and amazing experience — was super excited to get drafted especially by Brooklyn, of course, the city, the fans, the community, it was super exciting.”

We also got some wholesome moments with the leader of the group. Dëmin could be seen joking with some members of the Nets production team as well as Wolf.

“I’ve been here before — know where to go — really feel like at home,” Dëmin said of the place where he worked out and then got drafted.

That he is.

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