Not much going on out there. We’ve written about Michael Porter Jr.’s extension and why Joe and Clara Wu Tsai are likely to hang on to their Brooklyn sports assets, despite their marital split. That’s not mentioning the rationale behind the Liberty’s decision to move on from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, a critical piece in New York’s championship run two years ago and a local favorite. And oh yeah, what might have been if it wasn’t for a war in the Middle East. There are worse consequences than a missed NBA game.
Now, with most roster spots — even two-ways — filled and families getting ready for long-delayed vacations, things naturally get less busy. Mobile devices are still turned on but there’s less to talk about, particularly with Brooklyn whose off-season was mostly about one big trade, for Julius Randall, one big draft pick, in Mikel Brown Jr. and one big summer league surprise, Egor Demin. Free agency, which is becoming less of a big deal around the league, saw the Nets add some pieces — Moe Wagner and Keon Ellis, extend couple of others — Day’Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott, and bid farewell to Jalen Wilson, Ziaire Williams and Tyson Etienne.
Might they be part of some end-of-summer trade, if not a player? Sure, but that’s not what’s expected.
So we’re left as we often are this time of year tracking what’s going on with the players under contract, and there’s been a little bit of news, most of it far away from Brooklyn.
The big gathering was in L.A. as the players’ union, the NBPA, opened a west coast training center in an old Clippers training facility. A number of Nets were on hand for the inauguration of the union’s second players facility, the other in midtown Manhattan not far from Rockefeller Plaza.
The Nets contingent was strong on Day 1…
We counted MPJ, Tre Mann, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf. Porter Jr. looked healthy and solid and Drake Powell (in the red shorts) was making shots and being aggressive. We don’t know if there were others out of camera range or if we missed any in quickly perusing IG videos. Nor do we know why so many Nets, none of them with SoCal roots, were in L.A. for the opening. In the past, Nets players have gathered near L.A. for self-organized training and bonding sessions. Could that be happening this summer as well?
Meanwhile, Day’Ron Sharpe is back home after an event-filled couple of weeks that saw him get engaged (congratulations!) in Puerto Rico…
… then move on to China — Shanghai, Huangzhou and Hong Kong — with Nets legend Kenyon Martin and assistant coach Juwan Howard (a former teammate of Yao Ming) on a team-organized tour…
As former teammate, David Duke Jr., referred to him in comments as “Mr. Worldwide.” Duke Jr. now plays in Italy.
As part of the tour, the trio did some meet-and-greets with fans who posted their own pics…
… as well as with team sponsors in China and events with the “Cheer Nets,” the Chinese version of the Brooklynettes dance team that promotes the Nets at events across the PRC. They also visited the Huangzhou headquarters of Alibaba, which is headed by Joe Tsai, and an Asian University Basketball League championship game, also in Huangzhou, where Sharpe offered commentary. The league which seeks to replicate the NCAA at universities across the Asia was co-founded and financed by Tsai. Everyone eats.
Meanwhile, someone caught the back seat of Moe Wagner on his more quotidian European vacation, featuring the family dog and a vintage New Jersey Nets cap…
As our Bryan Fonseca noted both in 2018 and we reiterated after he signed with the Nets, a Wagner-Brooklyn mash-up has been in the stars for a while…
We’ve also heard Wagner has been living in Brooklyn for a while.
Look Back
Earlier this week, the Nets released a nearly 1o-minute video retrospect on the Nets Summer League team in Las Vegas, focused on Egor Demin’s bonding with the Nets three rookies — Mikel Brown Jr., Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau — whether on the court or out at a golf range.
There’s also some fun talk and video about Bilodeau’s family history with hockey, his father Brent’s career as a physical defender in the pro hockey circuits.
A couple of pieces of news about the Summer League we picked up recently. We know we’ve mentioned that Jefferson, the 6’9″ senior point forward out of Iowa State, is seen as a steal by Brooklyn brass at No. 28. It’s an assessment that’s unchanged despite a lackluster performance in Las Vegas.
Jefferson couldn’t play, scrimmage or practice with Brooklyn at all until the Julius Randle-for-Nic Claxton deal was made official on July 9 so he got a pass. But don’t be surprised if you hear down the line, as we have of late, that that the Nets wanted the exchange of picks in that three team trade specifically so they could take JJ. The Nets had the No. 33 pick, at the top of the second round, before the trade … but believed Jefferson might not be there. So they attached the swap of the Nets No. 33 for the Timberwolves No. 28 in the deal. They believe that Jefferson fell in large part because he was a 22-year-old, four-year senior.
The other is more an interesting look at how the NBA at large can be at a disadvantage when offering Exhibit 10s to NCAA players with a year of eligibility left. The Nets recruited Duke Brennan, a solid 6’10” Villanova big man, to play for their Summer League squad. He didn’t play much in Sacramento or Las Vegas but was rumored to be a candidate for an Exhibit 10 deal with Brooklyn.
An Exhibit 10 contract can mean a training camp invite but it can also be a way for teams to populate their G League squads with prospects. A player signs an Exhibit 10, gets cut and immediately moves to the G League training center. Financially, a G League player on an Exhibit 1o can make about $135,000 a year max: the standard G League contract — a bit less than $50,000 — plus a bonus of up to $85,000 if they stick around the G for 60 days. (Our Connor Long reports that while some teams will try to negotiate that figure down, the Nets do not, providing the full bonus to all their Exhibit 10 deals.)
But Brennan has NCAA eligibility left and so, according to reports, at least five schools would like to add him — and pay him NIL money which could reach seven figures easily. At this point, it look like Brennan will return to school a richer man than if he joined the pros.
Meet and Greet
Last week, the 76ers moved their press conference introducing Jaylen Brown from the 76ers practice facility which is located across the Delaware from Camden, N.J. to the Francis J. Myers Recreation Center in West Philadelphia where dozens of children were ready to greet him. They formed a line to slap fives with the player who arguably will be their team’s best this season…
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The Nets did it when they introduced their three rookies in early July at their Brooklyn Basketball Training Center also with a line of enthusiastic kids…
The rationales may be different — the 76ers training facility where pressers are usually held is divorced from either community — Camden or Philadelphia — while the Nets training facility is in a century-old industrial park on the Brooklyn waterfront but not far from Sunset Park and other Brooklyn neighborhoods. Traditionally, press conferences around the NBA are held without an audience, particularly kids.
Are we seeing a league trend to bring players closer to their younger fans? For the Nets of course, it’s their strategy: generational fandom — screw the proliferation of Knicks jerseys! Still, every team should be trying to break through what many see as the economic stratification of fandom brought on high prices for everything from tickets to concessions to team gear to streaming services to paywalls for sports pages. No one is hurt more by that stratification than youngsters.
The 76ers portrayed the decision to switch venues as Brown’s desire to get closer to the fans than he could have at a traditional press conference, particularly in Camden. The Nets would only say a presser in front of enthusiastic youngsters was more “festive.” It certainly wasn’t unscripted.
Several of the youngsters were already outfitted with the three rookies’ jerseys just days after the rooks were drafted. After YES Network and NBC Sports’ Noah Eagle asked his questions, the kids, sitting in a semi-circle, got their chance, all of it choreographed. The rooks and Sean Marks then adjourned to a back room where the media asked their questions in a more informal setting than usual. Nothing was lost.
So we’ve now seen it twice. Once more and we’ll declare it a trend.
NBA Schedule comes out this week
We don’t know the day, but the NBA schedule will finally be released. For Nets fans, who are not going to play on Christmas and their national games will probably be counted on one hand, maybe one finger, the big news will be when they open, against who and where; the home opener, and when they will be playing the NBA champion New York Knicks. Remain strong.
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