{"id":269184,"date":"2026-06-17T02:37:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269184\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T02:37:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T02:37:23","slug":"everything-nets-fans-should-know-for-the-2026-nba-draft-picks-targets-and-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269184\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Nets Fans Should Know for the 2026 NBA Draft: Picks, Targets and Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">The Brooklyn Nets are set to make their highest pick in decades, with the 2026 NBA Draft just one week away.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">The Nets disappointingly fell at the 2026 draft lottery, but are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/one-overlooked-move-the-brooklyn-nets-can-pull-at-the-2026-nba-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">still tasked with leaving the draft with star-level talent sixth-overall<\/a>. Given there\u2019s a nearly-locked in top-four, that should mean Brooklyn can land a talent two spots later. The LA Clippers will follow up the Bulls at No. 5, and Brooklyn\u2019s decision could hinge on what they do.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6z\">Below is everything Nets fans need to know before draft day:<\/p>\n<p>Picks:No. 6<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">The best asset currently in the team\u2019s cache, teams will be jumping at the chance to trade into the top-six, though Brooklyn should like stand pat and draft their building block of the future. There will be numerous options sixth overall, with the front office doing its due diligence on each.<\/p>\n<p>No. 33<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">The NIL landscape has thinned out the end of the first round and early-second range significantly, with players heading back to college on multi-million dollar deals. Still, there are some highly intriguing upside swings here that Brooklyn could add.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>No. 43<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">The class will have certainly thinned more by this point, though the same sentiment holds as No. 33.<\/p>\n<p>Potential Targets:Keaton Wagler<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">Wagler saw a meteoric rise in the draft space, coming in as a mystery and leaving as a potential top-five pick via a Final Four run with Illinois. He\u2019s been penciled in at No. 5 to the Clippers for many, but could still be around at No. 6, offering a scoring wing with good passing feel.<\/p>\n<p>Darius Acuff Jr.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"83\">Acuff, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/brooklyn-nets-projected-to-select-next-jalen-brunson-at-nba-draft\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a stocky Arkansas guard<\/a>, was one of the best players in college basketball this year, offering superstar scoring and passing, while leading the Razorbacks to the SEC title and Sweet Sixteen.<\/p>\n<p>Kingston Flemings<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-18\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"89\">Houston guard Kingston Flemings has claim to being the best defender and passer of the guard bunch, with elite athletic tools both vertically and horizontally. He needs to improve the scoring process, but could very well do that with reportedly high work ethic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Brown Jr.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8f\">One of the highest upside options in the class, save for the top-four, Brown has the best combination of tools in terms of shooting, passing, handling, positional size and more.<\/p>\n<p>Aday Mara<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-22\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8l\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/should-the-brooklyn-nets-consider-aday-mara-with-the-sixth-pick\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Drafting a center at No. 6 <\/a>would feel a little bit of a stretch for Brooklyn, though if the Nets did take Aday Mara there, it would signal how much they believe in his size and ball skills at 7-foot-3.<\/p>\n<p>ReportsNets Have Been Hard to pin Down so far<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-26\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8w\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/49041464\/2026-nba-mock-draft-projecting-60-picks-draft-night-trade-talks-boozer-peterson-dybantsa-acuff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Per ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Woo<\/a>, the Nets\u2019 No. 6 pick has been a hard spot for rival teams to predict.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-27\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8z\">\u201cBrooklyn&#8217;s pick has been challenging for rival teams to project,\u201d Woo wrote in a recent mock draft. \u201cWith the Nets tied to a large group of prospects and no obvious best fit. Although Acuff doesn&#8217;t match the Nets&#8217; preference for positional size on the perimeter, rival teams have come to view him as a serious candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets are set to make their highest pick in decades, with the 2026 NBA Draft just&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-269184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}