The Brooklyn Nets are a lock to miss the NBA Playoffs in 2025-26, as they were last season. Thankfully, there are five first-round draft picks on the roster this time around, five young players actually
worth investing your time and energy into. Not to mention third-year players Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead, each just 21 years old, looking to have their first fully healthy and productive years in the NBA.
But it’s really about the rookies, all of whom except for Danny Wolf will begin the season at just 19 years of ago. You know the Brooklyn Nets will not be a good NBA team this season, and that’s okay, but every time the rookies step onto the court, you might be catching glimpses of the promised future of this franchise. When 25-year-old Nolan Traoré is wiping off the champagne-soaked rims of his goggles after the 2031 NBA Finals, you will think back to his first 25-point game in the NBA, a 10:00 p.m. ET tip-off on the West Coast during a 25-win season. It’ll all be worth it. The journey is just as much yours as it is his.
By and large, this is the hope the Brooklyn Nets are supplying their fans this season. It won’t be smooth sailing.
Egor Dëmin is already dealing with a plantar fascia injury, and has not participated in any contact drills throughout training camp. He seems iffy at best to play in any preseason game. Drake Powell, the #22 overall pick, is dealing with left knee tendinopathy, but he started the week by participating in his first full-contact practice.
“It’s been great,” said Powell of his limited experience. “You know, just being able to be a student of the game, still trying to learn different concepts to this new system that I’m in. But, like you said, now being in it, I think that’s helped me 100%. It’s not saying that I learned everything — there’s still some things to learn — as it’s different being on the sidelines and now being on the court, but yeah, just still taking it day by day.”
Head Coach Jordi Fernández shares that positivity: “He’s been doing a great job. His body looks good. Getting ready to better ramp up and just being cautious. He’s done a really good job. He’s an elite athlete — we believe the best athlete in the draft — so it’s exciting to watch him take those steps and he is putting the work in, for sure.”
Indeed, it is ramping up season, the season of being cautious (and repeating the “best athlete in the draft” line, which is not the easiest sell). But for Powell and his fellow draft-classmates, and Nets fans, this approach will extend beyond injury management. Just take a look at the roster; guys like Haywood Highsmith, Terance Mann, Ziaire Williams, Clowney, Jalen Wilson if he survives training camp cuts…they all expect to play early and often, for good reason. Say what you will about Kobe Bufkin and the rookie guards, but is there any doubt that Bufkin is presently the best player of the crop?
After Tuesday’s practice, Jordi Fernández was asked how he views #27 overall pick Danny Wolf. Is he more of a stretch forward or a ‘backup’ center? “You mean the backup center being the one coming out the bench, so he takes Day’Ron’s spot?”
Point taken, though Fernández did clarify his position in a follow-up: “I see him as a basketball player. He’s a player that can play-make, a big, capable shooter, obviously trying to learn the NBA, whether he’s on offense and defense and establishing himself. So once again, giving him the proper steps, giving him the chance to go beat — if he’s better than Nic, he’ll play over Nic. If he’s better than Day’Ron, he’ll play over Day’Ron. If he’s better than Noah, he’ll play over Noah and so on.”
Those, at least for the moment, are some pretty big ifs. Nets fans eager for the rookie revolution will have to tune into Long Island Nets games throughout the season, though that’s not such a terrible thing. Just ask Noah Clowney, who parlayed a strong rookie season in the G League into a fantastic spring in the NBA…
Said Clowney: “The G League is probably the most similar to NBA speed you’re going to get … I think it’s good for anybody that goes there. If you go there with a positive mindset, it’ll be all right.”
As with every NBA team, one of the main principles Jordi Fernández and the Nets instill into their young players is shot quality. But isn’t that getting easier these days? Drake Powell, at just 19 years old, has been hearing “threes and layups” for about half his life.
Indeed, Powell feels like he has a “pretty good understanding” of how Brooklyn wants to play: “Just, given my time that I spent in North Carolina, you know, mid-range shots, they were, like, limited. He still wants us to take them, but you know, obviously not at a high clip, still want to get layups and threes, as many as you can. But yeah as I get into the flow and start to understand the offensive system, I’ll start to have a better gauge about that.”
With a player as raw as Powell, these are the signs we’ll have to look for. Even if he doesn’t have a 20-point game all season, something as simple as attacking a closeout, jump-stopping in the paint, and hitting a kick-out pass is cause for excitement. And Powell knows it: “Punching gaps whenever I see them, especially in transition. Just attack, get two feet in the paint, find corners however you can.”
This is exactly what Jordi Fernández wants to hear: “Those are the little things that we are going through in training camp. Defining a lot of things, not just on offense: good shots, bad shots, but also defensively in our priorities. It’s a process. We cannot throw it all at once, otherwise it would be overwhelming. So far, these guys are doing a great job.”
As you probably know, the Brooklyn Nets did not draft Cooper Flagg this past June. Of their five first-rounders, three are 19-year-old ball-handlers, one is a 19-year-old wing who must figure out his offensive game beyond jumping high, and one is a 21-year-old, um, “basketball player,” in the words of his head coach.
For the 2025-26 Brooklyn Nets, progress will be measured in inches, not miles. But isn’t it always?
