Only one more Off-Season Report left! Don’t tell us about this being a quiet off-season! It hasn’t been easy finding a lot to write home about! There was big news like Mikel Brown Jr.‘s debut and Egor Demin’s growth. The arrival of Julius Randle is intriguing. He does have a habit of exploding when joining a new team after all. Sean Marks & co. also made some moves like re-signing Day’Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott to more than reasonable deals.
But for the most part it was stay-the-course, show resolve,
call for patience, build for that “sustainable” future. You know: the tank may be over but the rebuild continues. They added another first rounder in another salary dump. They still have 13 firsts in the next seven drafts, most in the league. The 18-man roster continues to be development-centric with nine players 22 or younger and 14 under 25, retaining their position as the NBA’s youngest team in a generation. Winning may be the goal now but hoping to contend for anything other than a play-in spot seems like folly … despite what Michael Porter Jr. has said.
And ICYMI, the Knicks threw themselves a parade that attracted two million people! So there’s that.
All that said, we’ll know more over the next two weeks or so about the internal view of the team. We’ll get state-of-the-team assessments from Sean Marks and Jordi Fernandez a week from Monday at Media Day. Players will be available too of course. No word yet on how much of it will be televised on YES and the Nets website. Then, from September 29 through October 5, there will be daily practices at the facility as well the Nets Fan Fest — apparently the Practice-in-the-Park replacement — in Crown Heights on October 4. Fernandez will be available to the media (including ND) at the end of each practice to provide updates. The preseason opener is October 6 in Charlotte. Two days later, the Nets will be at home vs. the 76ers for their only home game this preseason.
A positive at least for now: we know of no injuries or health issues … although the Nets have a history of not publicizing them till the last minute. We learned about Demin’s plantar fascia issue (which had put him in a wheelchair!) at last year’s Media Day, months after it had been diagnosed and treated. Similarly Nolan Traore’s ankle scope was only revealed the day before the Nets flew out to Sacramento for Summer League. Same with Grant Nelson’s patella tendinitis.
The only contract situation outstanding remains MPJ’s extension. Nothing new that we know of there. Just a lot of speculation. Porter seems quite happy with the organization otherwise, promoting the improvements made by the young players and offering his enthusiasm and optimistic assessment of how he and Randle can work together.
A different kind of preview
In the meantime, we’ll be “treated” to preseason previews that no doubt will be continue to be mostly negative. It remains the narrative with just a little relief. If you’re looking for one preview that we thought captured things without being overly pollyannish or gloomy was the No Ceilings preview which is the most recent, having been published Saturday.
No Ceilings’ Tyler Rucker and Tyler Metcalf say Nets fans should be excited about team, particularly its future, while admitting the team has a “long way to go” before they contend. Sounds fair.
Metcalf starts off the preview with a comment that reflects what a lot of fans think: “I don’t even know where to start with this team (pause.) They are so weird.”
“I love Mikel Brown Jr. I love that they swung on him in the first round,” he continued. “I think they got a couple of really intriguing forwards in the draft in Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau. I think Egor Demin is in for a massive second year. I loved the style they played last year with the quick decision-making, ball movement, player movement … and then there’s Julius Randle. When he’s good, he’s really good. Then there’s the other part.”
Rucker generally agrees.
“I’m sort of intrigued with …” he started off, with his own pause, his face just a tad contorted. “The team is weird enough that I like sort of like it. You know what I’m trying to say. I’m like, they’re sort of finding the path.”
Much of the positive elements of the preview are based on their excitement about the two 20-year-olds and their belief that Randle and Porter Jr., while flawed are “bucket-getters.”
“It starts with Mikel and Egor. I think Nets fans should be optimistically excited with this team. They’ve got two young pieces that they can build around,” said Rucker before defending Randle and Porter Jr. to Metcalf. “Say what you want Randle and Michael Porter Jr. They’re going to produce. You know they’re going to have games.”
Metcalf grudgingly agrees re Randle, saying “you know he’s going to get his on that Brooklyn team. He’s getting his numbers” and Rucker arguing that maybe the two players will love it in Brooklyn. (Both have certainly said so publicly.)
Metcalf also talked about the possibilities of Demin, Brown Jr. and Porter Jr. working together.
“I think Egor is going to be in for a big year. I love, theoretically, just what the trio and the floor spacing and the decision-making and scoring versatility of what he, Mikel and Michael Porter Jr. could look like together. I think those three on the court with their shooting, with their decision-making, and with their off-ball movement could be really, really fun ” he added.
He is not so sure how Randle fits. While conceding the veteran’s skills, Metcalf also wondered about the 6’9” forward’s offensive game.
“We talked about the Nets last year played such a fun style and really moved the ball. That’s not what Julius Randle really does. He’s a good passer, really skilled for his position, but it’s grab, pound, pound, pound, throw your body into someone, throw your body into someone, then make a decision. There’s very little quick decision-making. So I’m curious to see how works.“
Rucker, however, offered the other side of Randle’s game: he knows how to score.
“Randle’s going to be toughness. and he’s almost been what, nearly 20 points a game since 2019! That’s amazing.” (Editor’s note: The actual number is 21.7 points a game since 2018-19: 11,965 points in 551 games over eight seasons.)
Rucker addresses one big criticism of the last two years, that other than Demin, the 2025 Draft class aka the Flatbush 5, has underperformed, including during this year’s Summer League. Still he thinks that some of the criticism is unwarranted or premature.
“If Egor is awesome, I feel like we’re gonna to ignore the rest of the picks,” he argued. “almost. almost.”
Metcalf takes a similar tack.
“If you get one of those guys to hit at a super high level, especially the first one who’s a top 10 pick, then the rest is gravy … ‘We got one!’… and realistically, how many picks in the twenties actually hit?” said Metcalf of the Nets other picks taken at Nos. 19, 22, 26 and 27. “Typically, you’re either taking a seasoned upper classman to fill a very specific need or you’re taking a big homerun swing and they swung.”
Rucker thinks that it’s too early to give up on what else they got.
“Ben Saraf, I think, is going to be a good backup. Nolan Traore, we didn’t see at Summer League, but we saw him walking and I turned to you and said, ‘Traore looks like he gained two inches of height.’ He looked gigantic. So we’ll wait and see, but I’m with you.
“I like (Noah) Clowney, (Day’Ron) Sharpe and you get Joshua Jefferson and what are you going to get from Danny Wolf this year? I don’t know, but I really like Tyler Bilodeau in the second round. I thought that was a really sneaky add for them. He looked good in Summer League.”
Rucker summed up his thoughts this way:
“Am I saying the Nets are going to make the playoffs? NO! Am I saying this could be a year step forward? Sure for the Nets development? Absolutely!”
Rucker also left Nets fans with a wondrous best case scenario.
“This could be one of those funny teams that … there’s always one team that starts red hot, that’s we’re like ‘where did this come from?!?’ They’re 8-2 to start the year and all of sudden, we’re like, Oh! Okay! There it is!”
To which Metcalf adds, “they’re already done that.” Indeed, this is the 25th anniversary of Jason Kidd joining the Nets. Despite Kidd’s record of achievement prior to his arrival in New Jersey, virtually no one picked the Nets to even make the playoffs. They started 7-2 in 2001-02 and look where they wound up.
Tyler Bilodeau’s unlikely round trip
It was interesting to hear Rucker praise the Nets for taking Tyler Bilodeau at No. 43 in the second round. The 6’9” UCLA sharpshooter was not high on any draftnik’s big board until last June when ESPN pegged him in at No. 60 in their last two mock drafts.
We’ve written about Bilodeau’s possibilities, but also admitted that when he was selected, all of us who followed the draft reacted with one variation or another of “who dat??” when Mark Tatum called his name midway through the second round. Metcalf was correct in that he played well (enough) in the Summer League. And he had the highest 3-point percentage —46.0% — of any player in the Draft.
But what interested us this weekend when doing some research on the Nets draft history was the route he — or should we say the pick used to take him — traveled. It’s an example of how picks, particularly second rounders, wander… in this case four times in eight years.
The story starts in June 2018 when the Nets and Hawks were talking about a trade — a salary dump to be specific. Brooklyn sent Jeremy Lin; a Nets second rounder in 2025; the right to swap second rounders with the Hawks in 2023 in return for the draft rights to injured 21-year-old French guard Isaia Cordiner and Portland’s second rounder in 2020, which is protected top 55. The deal freed up $12.5 million in cap space which when added to the $10.5 million the Nets already had, giving Marks enough to make other moves in the third year of his first rebuild. Move No. 1.
This was the trade that Joe Tsai mentioned in his interview for David M. Rubenstein’s for his book, “In the Owners Box.” the one the Nets owner feared would cause millions if not tens of millions of basketball fans in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. to “hate me forever.”
Then, in January 2022, the Hawks made a deal with the Knicks centered on Kevin Knox for Cam Reddish. Talk about a trade that no one won! Atlanta traded Reddish, Solomon Hill and the Nets’ 2025 second round pick for Knox and draft pick — a first round pick protected top 18 in 2022, top 16 in 2023, top 14 in 2024 or if not transferred, seconds in 2026 and 2027. Move No. 2.
The Knicks held on to it until June 2024 and the Mikal Bridges trade. Sean Marks took advantage of Leon Rose’s desire to add Mikel Bridges by asking not just for the five first rounders — four Knicks and one Bucks — but also his 2025 second rounder back. Done deal. Move No. 3
A year later, the Nets still controlled the pick and four firsts. Then, the day before the 2025 Draft, Brooklyn became part of a three-team deal — for them a salary dump — with the Hawks and Boston Celtics who needed help to complete a deal centered on Kristaps Porzingis and Georges Niang. In return for that help, the Nets acquired Atlanta’s first rounder, at No. 22, which became Drake Powell, and Terance Mann. Did the Nets want to develop five firsts AND a second? Nope.
So they shopped their wayward second, sending it to the Phoenix Suns and winding up with a 2026 second from the Los Angeles Clippers and a 2030 second from the Celtics in return. Move No. 4. That 2026 Clipper pick became Bilodeau. (What happened to the Nets 2025 pick? The Suns traded it to the Lakers and it became Adou Thiero.)
Other than a nerdy trip through eight years of draft boards, what is the value of this exercise? For one thing, it shows that second round picks have worth and the Nets lead the league in seconds with 19. Also, it shows that Bilodeau should be counted as part of the Nets haul for Bridges, not that it means much after that parade.
So let’s hope that Rucker was right in calling Bilodeau a steal. It’s taken enough time for him to get here.
Final Note
Another sign that the off-season is ending is what you just read. As we noted, not much out there. We are still waiting for the final Exhibit 10’s to get done. We’d expect that’ll happen this week.
But rather than dwelling on that, we’d like to point to something that Joe Tsai told David Rubenstein for his book on billionaires buying sports teams. Not what he said about his concerns over the 2018 Jeremy Lin trade nor how he set up a Twitter account to have direct access to fans now how Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh had a “decent game” when the two played pick-up with Yale Law students. Nope. it was what he said about his priority in running the Nets.
“We need to win a championship,” Tsai told Rubenstein. “We need to prove ourselves.”
You’re on the clock, Joe.
