Brooklyn Nets rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. had plenty of hype surrounding him ever since the Nets selected him with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Brooklyn did plenty of work finding out what kind of person Brown is on and off the court and during this summer, he gave a glimpse of what he could look like next season when he's playing in the NBA.
The Nets posted highlights of what Brown did during the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League where he showed why scouts deemed his game as exciting, but effective. Brown made his NBA summer league debut in Brooklyn's last game of the Classic after sitting out the first two games as summer league head coach Dutch Gaitley and the rest of the coaching staff was trying to give him
time to heal from his back injury.
Prior to the draft, Brown dealt with a back injury that affected his freshman season at the University of Louisville, but after displaying his skill set in Chicago during the NBA Combine, teams saw what he could do as he recovered. In the Classic, Brown had a decent game as he put up 10 points and four assists while shooting 36.4% from the field and 40.0% from three-point land, but he took his game to the next level in Las Vegas.
Brown played in three of the Nets' first four games of the Las Vegas Summer League and over the course of those three outings, he averaged 16.7 points, 4.0 assists, and 1.7 steals per contest while shooting 39.5% from the floor and 33.3% from deep. Brown also played more minutes as the event went on, showing that he is feeling better each day and that's good news for a Nets team that needs him healthy to begin next season.
What is appealing about Brown after making just a few appearances over the course of this summer is his maturity and his ability to mix in some creativity in his game while playing in a way that helps his teammates play better. Like every young player, Brown will have parts of his game to clean up heading into training camp, but until then, here are his highlights from his time playing in both summer leagues:
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets' Mikel Brown Jr. 2026 NBA summer league highlights
