{"id":230656,"date":"2025-10-17T04:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230656\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T04:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:14:08","slug":"nets-drake-powell-will-have-to-prove-he-can-handle-bigger-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/230656\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets’ Drake Powell will have to prove he can handle bigger minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Drake Powell\u2019s usage rate in college \u2014 or lack of usage \u2014 was a red flag for some coming into the draft. But not for Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

The first-round pick is clearly raw, but after Powell looked better than many expected during his first preseason action, Fern\u00e1ndez said he wasn\u2019t the slightest bit concerned about the wing\u2019s historically low usage rate at North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t there [at UNC], and I cannot judge whether it\u2019s positive or negative. But I see [Powell] as an elite on-ball defender, as probably the best athlete of this draft, a player that can run a play on the second side, a very good ball handler,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cHe was a point guard when he was in high school I believe, or growing up, so you can see all those things.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe makes it look simple, and does things that you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, that looks easy.\u2019 But it\u2019s not easy. We\u2019re going to see the growth. It\u2019s not always going to be easy. He\u2019s going to have to earn it \u2026 the point guards [are] going to have to earn their minutes and take advantage of their minutes. Same thing with Drake. He\u2019s going to have to take advantage of his minutes. If he starts with [an] opportunity, great. If not, the opportunity will come. So I expect all those guys to see the floor at one point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell\u2019s 13.8 usage rate at UNC was the lowest of any wing ever drafted, according to The Athletic. <\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Powell dribbles the ball during the Nets\u2019 preseason win over the Suns during NBA China Games 2025 on Oct. 12, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

He was drafted for his defense and athleticism, with the best vertical leap in his class, and was billed as lacking offensively. <\/p>\n

But in two games against the Suns, he shot 3-for-6 from deep and didn\u2019t look completely out of his depth on the rare instances that he was surprisingly asked to handle the ball, play pick-and-roll, etc.<\/p>\n

Of Brooklyn\u2019s record five first-round picks, Powell seems the most likely to spend time with G-League Long Island. <\/p>\n

\"DrakeDrake Powell drives to the basket during the Nets\u2019 preseason win over the Suns during NBA China Games on Oct. 12, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Those minutes are going to be valuable for him, to get his offense to the point where it at least allows his already impressive defense to get on the floor in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. is one of the best cutters in the league, and thrived on those plays in Denver playing off Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. <\/p>\n

The Nets are still installing and drilling actions at the top of the key to leverage his abilities.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The latest Sportico ranking of most valuable NBA teams is out, with the Golden State Warriors leading the way at a staggering $11.33 billion. <\/p>\n

The Knicks came in third at $9.85 billion, and the Brooklyn Nets sixth at $6.22 billion.<\/p>\n

The return on investment has been impressive, with the average NBA team value shooting up 113 percent in just three years.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn is \u201cpausing\u201d for this season the BK Block, a dedicated fan section that hosted the Brooklyn Brigade the past seven years, according to NetsDaily. <\/p>\n

The Brigade will continue, but not the section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Drake Powell\u2019s usage rate in college \u2014 or lack of usage \u2014 was a red flag…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[671,19506,355,99],"class_list":["post-230656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}