The Long Island Nets upcoming season is sure to be one of the most anticipated ones in the G League team’s history. There’s a lot to take advantage of … on and off the court. So expect to see more of the red,
white and blue in 2025-26.
The Brooklyn Nets rebuild will take place at the G League level as well as at the NBA level. For Brooklyn’s “sustainable success” strategy to work, they have to be the department of development, and that will be bigger deal this year than ever before with the strong likelihood that some if not all the Flatbush 5 will spend time in Uniondale, home of Nassau Coliseum. Long Island will open its season there Friday night at 7:00 p.m. ET. So, if they’ve been assigned, fans will soon be able to get a longer look at them than in Brooklyn.
It’s not only that. It’s Long Island’s 10th year as the Nets’ G League affiliate, which will promote, and the team is continuing to build a fan base in French-speaking Canada! No one at this point knows who will be taking the Southern State Parkway or how often, but the team will have a high profile as a result.
Morgan Taylor, Long Island’s Vice President of Business Operations, spoke at the team’s Fan Fest at the Coliseum Sunday, and let everyone know that the organization has some pretty big goals on the basketball and business sides. Taylor outlined some specific ways to reach those goals, starting with a jump in community marketing.
“It starts today with the Fan Fest kicking off our 10th season,” Taylor told ND. “We’re really excited today. We have over 500 people, and we’re thrilled to have our fans join us in celebrating our 10th year … To reach our attendance goals, we’re really connecting with our local fans and local community.” This includes running back all of the township nights, theme nights, and of course, the “number one attended game every year,” Education Day.
Last season, the Nets averaged around 2,000 fans per game with a high of 7,325 and a low of 625. The hope is that they can drive that up to 3,000, which is basically a league standard, and be consistent.
The team is also continuing to build an impressive fan base in French-speaking Canada with four games this season at Place Bell, a 7,000-seat venue in suburban Laval. Last season, the Nets drew nearly 40,000 fans over six games. This year, they’ll be four games and Taylor has not ruled out the Quebec trips as a permanent feature.
“We’re really excited to return,” Taylor said. “We’ll have Terry (Roberts) and Tre (Scott) on the team again, along with (head) coach Moo (Mfon Udofia) and (Canadian associate head coach) Sean Swords. They will help us promote all of our games up in Canada, and the Groupe CH that we work with to put on all of these games is really excited to invest in our team and really bring the game of basketball back to Montreal.”
Long Island’s GM, Matt MacDonald, also spoke about the excitement about the Montreal trip this past Thursday at Long Island Nets Media Day.
“We’re very excited to go back there. It was a terrific couple of games, thinking back to last year, on a couple of different trips. Just how we were received by the Montreal community, but really, the reaction from our players. It was cool. It’s a different trip. Yeah, it’s another road type of trip where you have to travel. But, just the environment there. The energy, we had guys on the team last year who played in the NBA Finals game, and for them to say to us, ‘yeah, this is really cool,’ that was awesome.”
The big picture with the Canada partnership is not necessarily growing the Nets brand ; that’s just a huge plus. However, it’s to grow the game of basketball, and no NBA organization has been as internationally focused as Brooklyn, its last two owners Russian and Chinese. The Nets franchise going back to New Jersey days has played 25 games overseas, more than any other in the NBA.
Now, the G League affiliate is doing the same, believing it can develop a fan base 370 miles from Brooklyn …. and 335 miles from Toronto. Groupe CH, Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment’s partner, is trying to demonstrate to the NBA that Montreal is ready for an NBA franchise. Groupe CH the owner of the Montreal Canadiens as well as Place Bell and Bell Center, an NBA-sized arena, would presumably have a role in any NBA franchise in Quebec.
The only difference is that this time around, we may see the Flatbush 5 take part, in some capacity, in the Canada trips which will feature games January 8 and January 9 vs. the Wisconsin Herd, then again February 8 and 10 vs. the Noblesville Boom, the Indiana Pacers’ affiliate.
When asked about the potential promotion of the Flatbush 5 for the upcoming games in Canada as well as on Long Island, Taylor told ND that the organization hopes to work with them in everything from player development to helping them promote their personal brands. (Might we see Nolan Traore, from Créteil outside Paris, welcoming fans in Montreal this winner as Killian Hayes did last year?)
“We’re really excited to be able to contribute to the developmental pipeline for the Nets. So any player we want to be able to tell their story, help them talk about their personal brand, and really promote them on and off the court. I’m sure whoever comes through our doors, we’ll continue to promote, and I’m sure Brooklyn’s really excited about doing the same.”
Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf, could all see time on Long Island. Rather than riding the bench in Brooklyn, they will get some serious minutes on the G League team to show fans and coaches alike what they have to offer. Who might be the first? Traore, Wolf, and Powell look most likely.
Indeed, at Media Day last Thursday, Udofia and GM Matt MacDonald spoke about the upcoming season, and more specifically, the ever-so-important and extremely crucial development of the Flatbush 5.
For Head Coach Mfon Udofia, it all starts with finding prospects with very high character, who can help with development as well as play the game.
“I think we do a really good job, collectively, as an organization to bring in high-character individuals,” Udofia said. “On and off the court. It’s gratifying for a coach to work with high-character individuals because when we push them, they want to be pushed. When we coach them, they want to be coached hard.”
Udofia also made it a point to say that there is still a difference between how Long Island does things and how the big club does things when it comes to development. “Talking with Jordi, he wants me to coach the way I want to coach,” Udofia told ND. “As far as my personality, we’re two different coaches, but at the same time, we are one umbrella. It’s a seamless process for those guys in Brooklyn when they come down to Long Island with us. So, we push those guys, and we push them hard.”
Like Brooklyn this season — but theirs every season, Long Island is primarily about development and they’ve had a number of successes over the last decade, some back in the first rebuild like Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen and Nic Claxton as well as some more recent and — truth be told — still developing players like Noah Clowney, Day’Ron Sharpe and Jalen Wilson. Long Island went to the G League Finals in 2019. A number of coaches have also made their way through Nassau Coliseum.
