Pooch had the Cam Thomas gig today. so that’s what we know and what we think.
Moving on.
So how young will the Brooklyn Nets will be this summer. At this point, barring a signing of a veteran or another salary dump, it looks like it will be among the youngest ever, not just for a Nets team whether in New Jersey in Brooklyn, but in NBA history.
Hoopshype did an exercise last year, averaging out the ages of every team in NBA history and came up the 25 youngest rosters. It was a weighted average as they
noted:
We considered players’ ages as of February 1 (approximately mid-season) and factored in their playing time. (For example, a 22-year-old player averaging 35 minutes per game would have a greater impact on the final result than one playing only 10 minutes.)
The youngest they found was the Houston Rockets of 2022-23 with a weighted average of 22.69 years old. That roster, which went 22-60, included Jalen Green (20), Jabari Smith (19), KJ Martin (22), Alperen Sengun (20), Kevin Porter Jr. (20) but it also featured Boban Marjanovic (35), Eric Gordon(34) and and Frank Kaminsky who turned 30 the week the season ended.
The Nets on the other hand have no one older than Terance Mann (28) and Michael Porter Jr. (27) and instead of one teenager like the 2023 Rockets, have four in Nolan Traore, Ben Saraf, Egor Demin and Drake Powell, only one of whom — Powell — will reach 20 by the time the Nets fly to Macao for the preseason opener.
Indeed, Traore by our calculation will be the fourth youngest player ever in a Nets uniform and Saraf probably the fifth. The only players to have their debuts earlier are Derrick Favors in 2010 before he was sent to Utah in the Deron Williams trade as the Nets two 2023 firsts, Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney who of course are still with Brooklyn.
Here’s a list of 22 players who might be on the list come the last week of September when the Nets take to the floor the last week of September in preparation for travel to Macao for the NBA China Games. It includes all 10 of the players on standard, guaranteed deals, the four on standard, non-guaranteed deals, the three restricted free agents
We included two Summer League players looked good — Tyrese Samuel, the former Seton Hall big, and Grant Nelson who played last for Alabama — as well as Fanbo Zeng, the Chinese big who has been persistently linked to the Nets...
Nets by age if you add Samuel and Zeng or Nelson in order
— NetsDaily (@NetsDaily) July 26, 2025
Traore 19
Saraf 19
Demin 19
Powell 19
Whitehead 20
Clowney 21
Wolf 21
Zeng 22
Nelson 23
Johnson 23
Sharpe 23
Thomas 23
Williams 23
Wilson 24
Evbuomwan 24
Timme 24
Samuel 25
Etienne 25
Claxton 26
Martin 26
Porter 27
Mann 28
The Nets can bring 21 players to camp and again, they still have between a a third and half of their cap space, so this could change in the next 11 WEEKS!! Stay tuned.
Another fun fact from the Hoopshype list: of the 25 youngest teams, only three, all iterations of Sam Presti’s Thunder run, made the playoffs and of course this year’s OKC entry became the second youngest team to win it all. with Bill Walton’s 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers holding the record for the youngest championship team.
See there’s always hope!
As for the young Nets, some other points: Dariq Whitehead finally turns 21 next weekend. Drake Powell turns 20 on September 14, but the three others teenagers — Egor Demin, Ben Saraf and Nolan Traore don’t turn 20 till past the trade deadline. Traore has until the conference championships on May 28.
Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf adding to Nets popularity in Israel
As we noted last season, the Nets are among the 10 most popular NBA teams internationally with more than 50 million fans outside the U.S. They are top three in France as well as China and now have a growing fan base in Israel following Draft Night in which the Nets took two Israeli passports holders, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf back-to-back in the first round.
“And if you look at the draft picks this year, you might they’ve opened up another,“ said Mark Rosentraub, a professor of sports economics at the University of Michigan and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “In Israel. One of them (Wolf), of course is in my heart because he was with us in Michigan. It’s not lost in Israel. It’s, you know. It surprised me. It shouldn’t have. Getting those two young men Israel back-to-back ... Well, it set off a frenzy in Tel Aviv.”
We saw the same thing in reading the Israeli press in the days after the Draft and the excitement continues and goes beyond Israel. Nets podcasters have noted a surge in Israeli traffic as fans there try to educate themselves on the team.
Pete from Nets Fans You Know tells NetsDaily that five percent of his audience for a Summer League wrap-up podcast emanated from Israel. Then for a discussion of Cam Thomas the next week two and a half percent of his viewers were Israeli based.
Prior to the Draft? “I had no views from Israel at all. ZERO. Anything on Ben Saraf gets a boost from there.”
Pete says that there has been an increase in French (Nolan Traore) and Russian (Egor Demin) viewership as well, but not on the scale of the Israeli interest.
MPJ’s tour worth a look
Michael Porter Jr. laid out his first day on the job in a Vlog on his Curious Mike YouTube channel.
The Vlog got attention mainly in Denver for his comments on the practice courts (plural) at HSS Training Center. That. he noted, was twice the number at the Nuggets facility located within Ball Arena, their home venue. It would be like if the Nets were relegated to the small gym off the atrium behind the Fini Pizza.
In his tour, MPJ also noted a couple of other player amenities not found in Denver. HSS Training Center is one of the most modern in the NBA, the Nuggets near the other end. It may soon be replaced and while some might dismiss the disparity, Porter Jr. with one off-hand comment explained the importance of a top-flight gym for players to practice.
“I’m about to be in here all the time,” said MPJ
That was music to the ears of Irina Pavlova, who as president of ONEXIM Sports & Entertainment oversaw the construction of the $52 million facility which opened in February 2016.
“That’s exactly what we were aiming for!”
Final Note
Offered without comment...
Good morning @NBA , I was wondering if any teams had a training camp spot for an kind chap like myself . I’m like a SUV got a lot of travel miles but for the long haul(long season) you can count on me. I also keep good air flow amongst the team. I also can guard just about anyone
— R.HollisJefferson (@IAmCHAP24) July 27, 2025
Rondae is now 30 and playing in the Philippines.
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