Tuesday September 23 is yet another gorgeous day in New York City, over 70 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky.
Alas, we at NetsDaily are tucked away inside the HSS Training Facility fortress, as the Brooklyn
Nets open training camp with Media Day. It’s an all-day affair, with General Manager Sean Marks and Head Coach Jordi Fernández speaking at 10:00 a.m. ET, followed by much of the roster. We will be updating this article with any news and pertinent quotes that come out of the day.
Sean Marks and Jordi Fernández speak
Sean Marks handled most of the questions in the early session, with Jordi Fernández in a supporting role, and the main topic of conversation was clear: Cam Thomas. However, he did break one surprising piece of injury-related news, and we’ll start with that.
Egor Dëmin has a torn plantar fascia
In the middle of a response to a question about #8 overall draft pick Egor Dëmin, like a sudden ‘bless you’ when a passerby sneezes, Sean Marks revealed that Dëmin tore his plantar fascia following Las Vegas Summer League.
“He’s been a little bit limited with a plantar fascia tear after summer league. So he’s been, hasn’t potentially had the summer that he would have loved.”
Answering a follow-up, Marks added more context: “He’ll be limited for the first part of camp, with what he’s going to be doing, but hopefully there’s a build up through the first couple of weeks here, and then he gets out there. But we have no issues with thinking he’s going to miss, you know, the start of the season.”
It’s unclear, yet, which foot Dëmin is dealing with. Even if the Nets don’t expect the Russian teenager to miss the start of the season, it’s not exactly an auspicious start to his career. (Un)fortunately for him, he can look across the locker room to his fellow rookie, #22 overall draft pick Drake Powell, and commiserate.
Powell is dealing with left knee tendinopathy, the same issue that caused him to miss Las Vegas Summer League. On Tuesday morning, Marks gave a status update: “He’s not playing five-on-five as it stands now. But the hope is that he’ll be in camp and doing drills and so forth. He didn’t participate in open gym, then under those guides, but at the same time, you know, we have no issues with him being held out of camp and so forth. And we’ll build him up through there and he should be good to go for, hopefully, the preseason games.”
On Cam Thomas
Here was the main event. Less than three weeks have passed since Cam Thomas ended his restricted free agency limbo by accepting the qualifying offer of one-year, $6 million, setting him up for unrestricted free agency in 2026.
Jordi Fernández gave the first answer, discussing his conversations with CT this summer: “My conversations with him have been about his preparation over the summer. Addressing things based on his development. You know, obviously Sean can address the contract situation, but the way that we always focus is, how can we develop a player?”
Fernández added that he felt Thomas made impressive physical strides this summer, a nugget Marks also dropped when discussing the contract situation: “It’s part of the business — maybe the ugly part of the business — when you can’t find a common ground. But at the same time, how he’s developed and the hours that he’s put in the gym, not only here but on his own, speaks volumes.”
Marks then stressed that Thomas accepting the qualifying offer does NOT mean the 2021 first-round pick already has one foot out the door: “Both sides understand what’s at stake, but I also don’t want to jump to conclusions. Just because a common ground couldn’t be met this summer doesn’t mean, you know, he’s not a Net in the future or throughout the season.”
Undoubtedly, Fernández and especially Marks did not take Media Day to air any dirty laundry. Whether Thomas is on the same page is, at the moment, unclear, but Brooklyn brass does not seem ready to give up on Thomas just yet.
Said Marks: “His side is gonna see it from one side, and look out for the best interests of Cam, and we’re gonna look out from the best interests of the organization, and flexibility, and moving forward, and so forth. You know, I think it was handled behind closed doors and in a very mature manner from from both sides, very upfront, very honest, very transparent. I think he has a chip on his shoulder, like he always has. That’s the way he plays. So we expect nothing else for him to go out there and compete.”
Lastly, the Brooklyn Nets GM rebuffed the notion that Thomas does not fit into the team’s on-court future, which, after the 2025 NBA Draft, seems to skew heavily toward quick-decision makers and more-than-willing passers: “I think what you’ve seen from Cam over the course of the last year under under Jordi and the coaching staff here: You’ve seen him try and adapt and try and change his game. I mean, we know what he’s elite at. He’s an elite scorer. We don’t want to take any of that away from him. He knows that he’s going to work on all facets of his game, but he’s a leader with what he does, and we don’t want to take that away. And to be quite frank, I think he does fit with guys that end up moving the ball and have positional size.”
On Michael Porter Jr.
Michael Porter Jr. has had quite the summer. He was traded from the only NBA franchise he ever called home, where he even won a championship, and to celebrate his arrival in Brooklyn, he embarked on quite the media tour. Porter Jr. has never shied away from the public eye, between his own vlog guest appearances, but he ramped up both in the summer of 2025.
This did not come without controversy, with Porter Jr. telling the world he plays Andrew Tate clips for women he may be romantically interested in, and that having a gay son would hurt his heart. Many observers, including us here at NetsDaily, suggested he probably should have kept these comments to himself. I asked Sean Marks how Brooklyn handled MPJ’s public appearances this summer, and if direct conversations were had.
“Those conversations that myself and a group have had with with Michael will remain internal. I think this is, as Jordi alluded to, a new environment for him, a new market, new expectations, new roles, both on the court and in the locker room for him. So I think he’s, one, finding his way. I think, you know, we’ll just basically leave it at that. But I mean, he knows where the organization stands on certain issues and topics, and you know, this market is a little different than where he was.”
Marks was never going to publicly condemn MPJ or address anything he said specifically. However, it felt like a clear signal that the organization doesn’t exactly condone his comments either. As for the basketball expectations for MPJ, perhaps in an expanded offensive role, Fernández took that one.
“It’s going to be a new job for him. And at the end of the day, everybody’s got a job for the group, and it’s a job that, if we all do our jobs, we’ll be successful as a group … The good thing is, I have a previous relationship with him, so that’s makes it a little easier for me, but I’m going to ask him to do things that he’s never done before, and for those reasons, and I think that he’s up for the challenge once again. It’s not going to be given to him. It’s not a starting spot is not given to him. Minutes are not given to him or anybody else.”
