{"id":343761,"date":"2026-09-11T09:08:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343761\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T09:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:08:49","slug":"what-to-expect-hope-for-brooklyn-nets-young-players-entering-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/343761\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect, hope for Brooklyn Nets\u2019 young players entering 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"

I did not write anything about the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 play at Las Vegas Summer League. Nor the California Classic, for that matter. Let\u2019s amend that and a look at an assortment of Brooklyn\u2019s young players, examining what we saw during the summer and what we\u2019d like to see in 2026-27. Again, limited to those that played this summer. Sorry, Nolan Traor\u00e9. I like the haircut<\/a> though.<\/p>\n

Like you, I cannot wait to watch Mikel Brown Jr. this season.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m most curious about his long-range 3-point shooting. Over four games this summer, the #6 overall pick shot 9-of-26 from deep in 86 minutes of player. At Louisville, he shot a pedestrian 34.4% from deep, but half of his makes were self-created and he took nearly 15 attempts per 100 possessions. It\u2019s the variety, the volume, and the 84.4% from the line that drives optimism for his 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n

Brown Jr. wasn\u2019t shy to pull this summer, but I still felt like he left opportunities on the table\u2026<\/p>\n

Mikel will suffer from a lack of upper body strength as a near-teenage guard in the NBA, no question. He is at his most exciting when he hits second gear going north-to-south, going around\/by defenders rather than through them. And Brown Jr. will find more of these opportunities if he proves himself a capable shooter (on pull-ups especially) from 25+ feet, shots we\u2019ve seen on his highlight tapes as well as in summer workouts\u2026<\/p>\n

Though Mikel Brown Jr. shot around 65% at the rim (depending on your source) for Louisville, it was on fairly low volume, and I expect his rim-scoring to be subpar in his rookie NBA season. He\u2019s a fine vertical athlete, but he\u2019s lacking the strength to excel down there, for now. Not a long term worry.<\/p>\n

As such, I hope to see Brown Jr. stress-test his 3-point shooting for the Nets. Ben Saraf and Nolan Traor\u00e9 were all but explicitly banned from shooting pull-up threes last season (rightfully so), while Egor D\u00ebmin played off-ball more than Mikel will this season. How much license will the #6 pick have to fire? How many long-distance threes can he shoot while forcing defenses to play up on him?<\/p>\n

If defenses feel the need to apply pressure, it gives Mikel Brown Jr. more opportunities to make the type of plays that\u2019ll have you making irresponsible comparisons down in the comments\u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always wise to be wary of late-season ballers who do NBA damage in March and April. I\u2019m pretty sure Noah Clowney blocked more shots during the spring of his rookie season than he\u2019s blocked since. Alas, Chaney Johnson was out there hooping for the tanking Nets, enough to earn a two-way contract with Brooklyn heading into 2026-27. He was great at Las Vegas Summer League as well.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of reasons to doubt Johnson\u2019s NBA future. He is currently a 24-year-old 6\u20197\u201d center who hasn\u2019t been a consistent 3-point shooter at any point in his career. Even during his inspiring run of play last season, the Auburn product still had one of the highest foul-rates in the NBA. I appreciate that Johnson tries to dunk everything, but he still wasn\u2019t a great finisher (nor rim protector) at the NBA level, and there\u2019s no reason to think that\u2019ll change with a bigger sample size.<\/p>\n

Still, he plays hard as hell. Bucking the lineage of gangly, thin-chested Brooklyn bigs, he is compact and physical, living on the offensive glass but passing and ball-handling well enough to evince his past as a wing. He was the same player \u2014 but better \u2014 against lesser competition this summer. He made threes and free-throws in a small sample, sure, but he also racked up 15 steals and 24 offensive rebounds in six games!<\/p>\n

Chaney Johnson is undersized but he plays hard and physical. Can he outsmart opponents as well?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a great defensive play. I hope Johnson gets some small chance to make an impact for the Brooklyn Nets this season; is he the third-string center right now? I think he\u2019s earned an opportunity, however small, to prove his strength + smarts can play at the highest level, even if there are plenty of reasons to doubt him.<\/p>\n

When is Drake Powell going to play? That\u2019s a serious question. He seems prime to be a victim of perhaps the most interesting team-building storyline following the Brooklyn Nets this season: When do you start to give up on draft picks? The Nets want to take a step toward competitiveness this season, and there\u2019s seemingly a million guys on the roster who have a case for minutes.<\/p>\n

I felt bad watching Powell this summer. He had that brutal streak of misses from the field, unable to even get a cheapie in transition. But while his jumper needs improvement, that was a secondary concern. If NBA Combine scores were hidden from the public, would Powell still have a reputation as an elite athlete? I don\u2019t think so. He is laterally explosive, to be sure, though the absence of a threatening handle hides that trait on offense.<\/p>\n

Against lesser competition this summer, Drake Powell just didn\u2019t pop as either a player or an athlete. He actually finished pretty well at the rim last season, of course on low volume, but there are still so many plays like this in his catalogue\u2026<\/p>\n

Powell has an angle with a live dribble, an opportunity to let his renowned athleticism shine and get up at the rim. Instead, an awkward fading jumper that smears the glass. It\u2019s the lack of explosive finishes, deflections, and rebounds that worry me. I understand Drake Powell is raw, but I\u2019m not sure he\u2019s an elite basketball athlete either.<\/p>\n

Egor D\u00ebmin has his jorts, his jewelry, his new haircut, and that wispy mustache + goatee combo, fully assimilated to the North Brooklyn young professional lifestyle. Look<\/a> at our boy go. He\u2019s also been in the weight room, which he credits for his newfound comfort as a driver and overall 2-point scorer.<\/p>\n

I have my reservations, you\u2019ll be thrilled to hear. D\u00ebmin wasn\u2019t just missing strength last season. The Russian then-teen had some other deficiencies, also present this summer and \u2014 hey, whatever. He shot 22-of-29 on two-pointers over five games in July. Nets fans should be excited for his sophomore year, even as NBA defender occasionally exploit his relative lack of shake. Still, the most encouraging sign is that D\u00ebmin seems simultaneously stronger and quicker\u2026<\/p>\n

Egor can dump that off to Chaney Johnson (who dunks it anyway), but doesn\u2019t he just feel snappier in that clip? Slow-to-fast-to-slow-to-fast.<\/p>\n

My hope for D\u00ebmin isn\u2019t solely that he makes more layups and dunks, it\u2019s that his improved ball-handling + strength allow him to explore the paint and make more high-level passes. I harped on the lack of assists leading to shots at the rim last season, and in general, I thought we didn\u2019t see the number of high-level passes commensurate with his reputation as a prospect.<\/p>\n

But D\u00ebmin should have the ball in his hands more moving forward, and Mikel Brown Jr. should bring more passing ability and scoring gravity than any backcourt partner D\u00ebmin played with last season. I can\u2019t wait to judge his improvement.<\/p>\n

Danny Wolf is approaching his age-22 season. He is graded on a stricter curve than any other young Net. Will he find minutes as a third-string center (in addition to playing next to Day\u2019Ron Sharpe + Moe Wagner) instead of Chaney Johnson? Is he strictly a big wing that can shoot and attack closeouts?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to get lost in the positional weeds with Wolf, but the key for 2025\u2019s #27 overall pick is finishing at the rim. Then we can talk about everything else. Per Synergy Sports:<\/p>\n

Wolf took more shots at the rim (as a % of his overall diet) than 66% of the NBA last season.Wolf was more efficient at the rim than just 17% of the NBA last season.Additionally, Wolf shot 9-of-21 on runners and hooks.<\/p>\n

His archetype as a multidimensional mismatch just doesn\u2019t work if he\u2019s not scoring on the interior. Wolf shot 16-of-26 from two in Las Vegas Summer League, a more important sign than small-sample frigidity from three, but there were still worrisome, ground-bound plays\u2026<\/p>\n

Brooklyn will presumably start Julius Randle and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe together in the front-court this season. They ran pick-and-roll less frequently than the vast majority of NBA teams last season, but ran more dribble-handoff action than any other team in the league. Now they have both a center and a bulky forward who can get Brooklyn into those actions \u2014 I\u2019m curious to see the split, and what Sharpe is doing when, for example, Randle and D\u00ebmin and playing a two-man game. Does Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez trust Sharpe to space and shoot corner threes? Dunker spot?<\/p>\n

Joshua Jefferson will see plenty of minutes in Long Island early, but I have the same questions about his usage. How often will he play as a dribble-handoff hub, how often will he be attacking closeouts and shooting threes?<\/p>\n

In Brooklyn, Jefferson will not be the point-forward he was for Iowa State. I look forward to seeing his vision in the open-court \u2014 hopefully he maintains strong defensive rebounding numbers \u2014 but I am most excited for plays like this\u2026<\/p>\n

Jefferson had the ball in his hands a lot in college. He should get the opportunity to hit cutters and play the DHO game with Brooklyn\u2019s shooters early on. But if Jefferson can make 0.5-second decisions off the catch and read the floor from there, it\u2019ll be a lot easier for Fern\u00e1ndez to get him on the floor.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Nets will hold Media Day on September 28, and NetsDaily will once again have you covered. Training camp and the preseason soon follow, and the Nets tip off preseason on the road against the Charlotte Hornets on October 6. Suddenly, we\u2019re almost there, folks.<\/p>\n