The LeBron James wait is over and the 41-year-old will be wearing No. 23 in Philadelphia trying to win his fifth NBA ring in his fourth NBA city which would put him in the same league as … Robert Horry who won seven in three cities.
With that settled, we’ve seen a couple of moves like the Thunder tendering an offer sheet to Spencer Jones of the Nuggets. The Nuggets have until Sunday night to match the Thunder’s two-year $12 million contract. With the Nuggets closing the second apron and with Denver’s ownership not wanting to pay, expect other developments. Will they involve the Nets? Don’t know, but we don’t expect Sean Marks to make the first call. The Nets have the assets other teams need get them out of apron hell.
The next shoe to drop will be Adam Silver’s ruling on the Kawhi Leonard/Aspiration scandal. At this point, we don’t know the full story despite all that’s been written and discussed. The latest revelation by Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic is that there may be a second company involved in funneling money to Leonard outside salary cap limits. If that turns out to be true, expect the hammer to fall heavily on the Clippers ownership and management as well as Leonard. Silver has generally been more conciliatory than his predecessor, David Stern, but the rising tide of scandal in the NBA, between Kawhi and gambling, is likely to change that … just a guess. Will that affect the Nets? It would seem unlikely unless it gives the Nets an advantage over the Clippers in some situation.
If you think we’re referring to Peyton Watson, so be it. We know nothing! As we’ve written, pundits don’t see Brooklyn among those teams likely to work a sign-and-trade for the 24-year-old but PWat and former teammate and big pal, Michael Porter Jr. continue to be seen together in the city in high profile settings: The Fanatics FanFest, the World Cup Final and a visit to the Nets practice facility where Watson was described as a “friend” of a player all got attention. And now a club.
On Saturday night, Jairo Media which tracks celebrity comings and goings, posted video of the two of them entering a club the same time as Jalen Brunson and his wife.
Take look. MPJ and Watson enter at the end of the video…
They seem to be inseparable.
We continue to think that MPJ is just helping his pal get some leverage in negotiations with the notoriously rich and notoriously tight-fisted Kroenke family. The more media, the better.
‘Mikel is the steal of the Draft’
The fan base is justifiably excited by what they saw from Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. in both Sacramento and Las Vegas. The Nets may have had bad luck in both the 2025 and 2026 draft lotteries but seem to have done well with what they wound up: a 20-year-old backcourt whose positional height and versatility — franchise watchwords — fit together so well on and off the court.
It’s a big deal for the short and long term of the franchise and in ways fans may not fully appreciate. Despite all their picks, there is no guarantee the Nets will ever wind up with two single-digit picks in back-to-back drafts, particularly in drafts seen as generational. They’d need some very good fortune in the lottery which as has been noted has been lacking. That’s how crucial their success with Demin and Brown Jr. becomes. (For the record, the only time the Nets ever had two single-digit picks in back-to-back drafts was 1995 and 1996 when they took Ed O’Bannon and Kerry Kittles.)
Keith Smith, writing this week about Summer League for Spotrac, noted that he had spoken with Nets insiders about the two’s time in Vegas:
On Egor Demin: “He’s a lot more comfortable going into Year 2. I think from the pre-draft process, all the way through his rookie year, we probably over-indexed on his three-point shot too much. I mean Egor, his trainers, our front office, our coaches, everyone. You saw out here (at Summer League), that he was getting downhill more. This year is about putting him in even better spots to shine as an all-around player,” a Nets front office executive said.
On Mikel Brown Jr.: “You’re probably going to hear this about every guy, including A.J. (Dybantsa) at No. 1, but we feel like Mikel is the steal of the draft,” A Nets front office executive said. “He was a little wild here (at Summer League) and in California (at California Classic Summer League), but that’ll round out with time. Having him go against Keon (Ellis) and Terance (Mann) every day in practice is going to be huge for him.”
The Nets, we hear, had Brown Jr. at No. 5 on their internal board not far behind, in their opinion, the Big Four of A.J. Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson. (That might not have been the Nets order, just the draft order.)
There’s something else as well in Demin and Brown Jr.‘s favor. They are box-office, two smart, likeable and charismatic personalities … who know it. So do the Nets who have filled their social media outlets with images and videos that highlight them and their personalities. Might that change come the season when Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle (hopefully) start putting up big numbers? Maybe but at the moment they are the faces of the franchise with the second year a bit more so than the rookie.
The Nets are also very high on their 28th pick, Joshua Jefferson, the sweet-passing 6’9”, 240 pound point forward from Iowa State. Jefferson had dropped for a number of reasons. He had mid-first round mock draft vibes early in the season but fell back in part because he was a four-year college player — a consensus All-American but a player who turns 23 in November. He is in fact the eighth oldest player on the current roster! He, like Brown Jr., got hurt just as March Madness was beginning. A sprained ankle kept him out of all but the opening minutes of the opening game.
The Nets got the No. 28 pick in an exchange of first and second round picks — part of the Randle/Claxton trade. That deal didn’t get approved till July 9, the first day of the Vegas Summer League. Until then, Jefferson couldn’t practice with the team, couldn’t scrimmage. So his three games in Vegas were not seen as any indicator of his potential.
In general, a Nets executive told Smith the roster may not be done and pointed out how the y9ung players’ development has been prioritized in the addition of what was described as “legitimate NBA rotation players and potential rotation players.”
“It’s a work in progress. Unless you are the Thunder or the Spurs or the Knicks, I don’t know how you feel like you roster is ‘done’,” a Nets front office executive said. “We probably still lean a little too young, to be honest. The good news is that adding guys like Julius (Randle), Keon (Ellis) and Moe (Wagner) will help these guys grow up a lot. Those are real, physical, sometimes nasty, NBA guys. I can’t wait to watch them help our young guys grow.”
Final Note on deals
Nets will likely go into the 2026-27 season without much if any difference from what they look like now, other than signing Moe Wagner and extending (or not) Michael Porter Jr. It appears the Wagner signing delay is about wanting to have a tidbit of flexibility if something arrives on the door step at 168 39th Street in Industry City.
Both the Nets and MPJ are saying nice things about each other, as we’ve reported, but it would appear that the Nets may want a shorter-term deal than Porter and his agent Marc Bartelstein. Teams are less and less willing to take on long-term commitments because of the onerous nature of the second apron, not just in financial terms but also in terms of flexibility.
They took few risks with the signings of Day’Ron Sharpe ($20 million over two with a team option in year two); Josh Minott ($8 million over two with a team option also in year two), Moe Wagner ($19 million over two with a mutual option in year two) and Keon Ellis ($18 million over two, also with a mutual option.) The mutual option guarantees the full amount of the deals, but gives both sides the right to move on. More than one pundit praised the Nets for the reasonable nature of the deals.
Keith Smith pointed out that the Nets also believe they can win more now that they’ve added veterans, with one Nets assistant admitting, “Not to speak ill of last year’s team, but we were down to rookies and non-NBA-level players by the end of the year. This year, we’ve got depth and the kids are improving too.”
They will still likely be the youngest team in the league again this year and should have a lot of cap space, as much as $68 million, writes Smith in a separate post. That of course does not include any short-term raise MPJ may get or the still unsigned Moe Wagner’s $9.2 million. Still, they’re likely to once again enter the off-season in the top three of cap space.
Unless, they’re active now or at the deadline.
Read the full article here
