What a difference a year makes.
Following the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft, Sean Marks faced, through a screen, bewildered media simply trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened. The Brooklyn Nets not only did not trade any of their five first-round picks, but, judging by consensus, reached on plenty of prospects. The first season of tanking had come and gone without an exciting swing to show for it. Consensus can be and is often wrong, but after June 25, 2025, the Nets felt like
a franchise gone haywire.
On the morning of June 24, 2026, the Nets are a franchise ready to face the day. They have not been handed ideal circumstances. The road ahead is not going to be easy. But cautious optimism is warranted.
Brooklyn took Mikel Brown Jr. at #6 overall, a prospect they were heavily linked to in the days leading up to the draft but by no means the safe option. He missed a handful of games at Louisville with a bad back, posted a 45.7 eFG% against top 50 NCAA teams, didn’t play much defense, and struggled to protect the ball. But one look at the highlight tape — full of strong finishes, whirlwind passes, and pull-ups from another county — lights a fire…
Jordi Fernández has squeezed more than he had any right to out of his guards over the last couple seasons, providing Shake Milton an NBA swan song, Dennis Schröder the best stretch of his career, and Nolan Traore (perhaps the league’s worst scorer as a rookie) weeks of decent production. Now, Fernández has Mikel Brown Jr.
When asked what stood out about the 20-year-old, Sean Marks said: “Just how dynamic of a player he is. A playmaker, a scorer, the pace with which he played the game. I think he’s a cerebral player, has really great feel, and just excited to get a guy like that who has some intangible skills as well. When you look how athletic he is, as I mentioned before, the speed with which he can play, those things translate to our league. And then you get to meet the guy, you know, and he really has a chip on his shoulder, he really has something to prove, and I think those are some of the things that stood out to us.”
By trading Nic Claxton for Julius Randle, Brooklyn’s short-term mission is clear: Win a few more games. They have a stable of decent rotation players that, if nothing else, shouldn’t be destructive in their minutes, from Ziaire Williams to Day’Ron Sharpe to Josh Minott. Even Egor Dëmin fits that bill as a complementary piece with room to grow.
Brown Jr. is what they didn’t have, a dynamic young player whom fans can dream about. He is not Yaxel Lendeborg or Aday Mara or even Kingston Flemings; they could all be better than Brown Jr., who was not the safe pick … but that’s exciting.
During his rocky season at Louisville, Brown Jr.’s commitment was questioned repeatedly by a rabid college fanbase, and later by NBA scouts. His maturity, his resiliency, his father’s involvement were all put under a microscope. The Brooklyn Nets, per MBJ’s admission, met with him three times including a visit to his home in Florida.
“It’s really important to see how what makes these guys tick,” said Marks. “Where they come from, why they have the habits they have, you know, and their parents have a lot to do with it. And it was an absolute pleasure to meet the parents of Mikel, and get to see his family background and see where he’s from, and sort of the history of how he’s grown up, and so forth.”
Brooklyn did far more than their due diligence and took Brown Jr. anyway. For a franchise infamously committed to off-court character, this should relieve Nets fans. It is the inverse of what the Sacramento Kings did, taking Alex Karaban at #29 overall due to his winning reputation as a UCONN Husky, a clear attempt to bring a “high-character” rookie into their locker room even if his basketball talent did not merit a first-round selection.
Said Marks: “I think something that we saw with Mikel … was just how anxious and excited he was about getting out there in the NBA. Getting out there: ‘I’ve got something to prove.’ You know, it’s hard to measure but I think that’s something that will definitely translate, when you have a chip on your shoulder and you’re an extreme competitor.”
At #28, the Nets drafted another competitor, lauded for not just his playmaking but his toughness in Joshua Jefferson. And, finally, a guy with a BMI over 20! Our tremendous draft guide over at Swish Theory called the Iowa State product “one of the best 240-pound passers in the world” already, and it’s tough to argue with…
“Josh was a guy that we have absolutely been all over all year long,” said Marks, “and watched just how he played the game. You know, his skill set definitely translates. High IQ, and I think when you watch him play, and I said before: Iowa State plays through him. His teammates feed off of him, he’s definitely a facilitator out there, the toughness that he has, there was a lot of intangibles, and then he’s a winner. An absolute, flat-out winner.”
Jefferson, of course, does not arrive without concerns. As a 22-year-old, he’ll be expected to produce quickly even in a crowded forward room with Danny Wolf and Noah Clowney, not to mention Julius Randle. He is not a plus-vertical athlete for his size, and his scoring numbers left much to be desired in his senior season, perhaps plagued by a loose handle and lack of burst around the rim.
But Jefferson can clearly play, and throughout the season frequently got late-lotto buzz. This feels like the happy medium of Brooklyn valuing pedigree and production, even if he is an older prospect.
Sean Marks is already thinking about where the burly forward can fit in, too: “The way Josh plays with the ball, the DHOs, the reads, the passing ability — that is absolutely going to fit within Jordi’s system and Jordi’s style, and how he wants to play. Mikel, the same thing: He can break down defenses his speed, his craftiness, and obviously, athleticism yet again. Those things — you hear Jordi talk about paint touches all the time.”
It’s not that Mikel Brown Jr. and Joshua Jefferson are guaranteed to be productive NBA players. Far from it. Rather, it feels like the Brooklyn Nets have made the most of a mediocre situation, unafraid to trade for Julius Randle even if it invites insulting comparisons to the New York Knicks. They made no bones about selecting a potentially electric scoring guard, giving fans something to cheer about while doing their homework on the kid. What does it mean for Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf? That doesn’t matter right now; if Jefferson is quickly better than Wolf and Clowney, that shouldn’t matter either.
“I’m excited to see the current roster grow,” said Marks. “I’m going to start to see what falls our way, whether it’s in free agency or trades. I mean, we’ve kept ultimate flexibility over the last year or two, and I think we’ll continue to do that. And then, at the right particular time, when guys that we feel have that real Brooklyn grit — which is what we want to add — and we see them in here long term with us and they can continue to take us to another step in the right direction, we’ll add those guys to this to this group.”
I begrudge no Nets fan for bemoaning the results of the last two NBA Draft Lotteries. Egor Dëmin seems like a functional rotation piece, alas it’s hard not to wonder about what could have been. Same goes for this year, even if Brown Jr. explodes out of the gate. But while Brooklyn may not be a championship contender anytime soon, they are putting one foot in front of the other. They should be easy, if not enjoyable to watch next season. And as Marks alluded to, they still have 11 future firsts to throw around in the trade market.
Much is riding on Mikel Brown Jr.’s thin shoulders. He is not just the most exciting, but the most important rookie the Nets have had since moving into Barclays Center.
Things could be worse.
