Having five first-round picks is a First World problem.
But that doesn’t change the fact the Nets have a challenge in front of them: How to develop them all?
The Brooklyn Nets’ new draft class is meant to serve as the cornerstone for their rebuilding efforts. The challenge lies in how they can possibly ensure that all five players receive sufficient playing time, mentorship, and guidance to develop into the assets the team envisions them to be.
“That’s a good question,” remarked Jordi Fernández. “They will need to earn it, which is exactly how it should be. They’ll put in the effort. They’ve already demonstrated their potential, which is why we chose to draft them in the first place.”
“Then it’s going to be my decision to go and put five guys on the court, to have a 10-man rotation and go through the process.
That’s definitely on me. Player development is going to be important. We’ve been very diligent.
The coaching staff has done a great job making our guys work, and those guys have improved. And we believe [the draftees] will do the same thing.”
Those draftees are lottery pick Egor Demin, followed by Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf.
This draft included as many first-round picks as the Nets have selected in the last eight years combined, more than any team ever before in the NBA. There’s no existing strategy on how to develop so many players at once.
These are uncharted waters.
“Yeah, we never have three tables up here, so that shows you the size of the draft class, right?” GM Sean Marks said at Tuesday’s introductory news conference. “This is great. It was a unique opportunity for us, to be quite frank.
“We’ve never had five picks in one draft. To be able to draft all of them in a draft class we just saw, that was unique. That was something we want to take advantage of, especially in our build, where we see these young men fitting into our group and into our roster. So, it was about us capitalizing on the hand we were dealt.”
That hand was picks scattered throughout the first round.
Conventional wisdom was that the Nets would move up, but after seeing New Orleans have to surrender next year’s first-rounder just to move from No. 23 to 13, the cost proved prohibitive.
Instead, the Nets stood pat and took upside swings, banking on elite skill sets — size, passing, speed, athleticism, etc. — that could pay off, but only if they can fix glaring weaknesses, usually shooting. With so many pupils, the development staff will have its work cut out.
“The coaching staff, development staff’s proven that they’ve done a great job. And that gives me utmost confidence in developing these five guys,” Marks said. “If I don’t think we had that confidence in our staff, we probably wouldn’t have done it.”
None are being stashed, but several will spend at least some time with G-League Long Island, where Mfon Udofia has a track record of development.
“We’ll have to see how the season plays out and what minutes are there for everybody,” Marks said. “That’s what we want to see: These guys go compete. There’s no promises given to anybody, let alone the draft picks. … Go compete and may the best man win.”
“Summer League is important,” Traoré said. “Also, the preseason with the team after, getting to know everyone and making sure to know [everyone] basketball-wise. As a point guard, I’d say that it’s important to know these guys and know what they like and just start to build the team right away.”
Traoré is one of three primary ball handlers in this rookie class, all of them teenagers.
The Nets took Demin eighth, Traoré 19th and Saraf 26th, creating the risk of them figuratively cannibalizing each other and not reaching their potential.
“I think we’ll be playing several positions, so I don’t think it’s going to be a problem,” Saraf said. “I’m super excited to try to contact those guys. It’s going to be amazing.”
The Nets can only hope amazing in a good way.
