SCOUT Episode 1: All-Access With Brooklyn Nets Front Office Ahead Of 2025 NBA Draft

SCOUT Episode 1: All-Access With Brooklyn Nets Front Office Ahead Of 2025 NBA Draft

Joy Mandan, our head coach, as you guys know, is going to kick us off this morning. Welcome, Joy. Thanks for having me and thanks for taking the time. Uh the number one priority for me on the court is to have a plan in place to build a team with a soul. I care about creating winning habits and you guys know how it feels when you’re in a winning environment. Right now our job is to figure out who’s going to be the next step. You guys asked me, I think pretty much all of you is like, if we go and scout, what type of player we’re scouting? We want good dudes here. The players that are always in winning teams, there’s a reason why. If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done. And for me as a head coach, that’s what intrigues me the most. I want to be part of that. The earthquake that happened at 10:01 Eastern time Tuesday night. The ultimate pick package comes back to the Brooklyn Nets. The Knicks just traded five first round picks for Muel Bridges. I think GM Shawn Marks is up to something big. They absolutely crushed it. Also the trade later with the Rockets to regain the control of their future was also big. So the thing it’s an A+ deal for them. But the Nets have a clear direction now and and they are loaded going forward with draft assets. It was honestly pretty amazing the turnaround that we’ve seen, the way that they’ve were able to flip it from Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving to now, you know, having this treasure trove of picks and having a really promising future ahead, you know, not just this year, but in future years. I think it set them off in a really positive direction. I do know BJ and the rest of our college scouts are extremely excited about the opportunity that they have in front of them. So, the flexibility for us is pretty exciting and intriguing moving forward. I’m BJ Johnson. I’m the assistant general manager here at the Brooklyn Nets. originally from Greensboro, North Carolina. Um, went to Villanova University, very proud Wildcat and after my graduating in 2002, spent about 12 years at USA basketball and then from there jumped after the 2016 Rio Olympics and came to Brooklyn. We are in a unique situation as an organization. you know, we’ve had the chance to compete at a really, really high level and we’re, you know, to nail away from a championship potentially, you know, and uh now we’re on the back side of that and now we can rebuild and we can rebuild in a way that, you know, highlights Brooklyn and our culture and our organization and the city. That always set the foundation for us, you know, just understanding what the people of Brooklyn are all about. the Brooklyn Nets becoming an organization that wins and sustains winning and it’s a an example for others and people have has respect to me. That’s the most important thing. Respect for what we do. It’s pretty and it’s not about me or Sean, our best player. It’s about what we’re doing together. We have four first round picks which I am excited, elated about. This next month and a half is like huge for us I think because when when I go to a practice like I’m I’m obviously watching the players but I’m also watching the coach. This year is critical for us. Can’t say it any other way to get this draft right and to really nail it. Not only, you know, for the talent level that’s in this draft, but the type of people that we really want. if he misses his first or second shot, he’s not even looking to shoot. We don’t look at it as just a one-time thing. This has set us up for the next, you know, 5 10 years of our organization. So, to me personally, you know, we get these next three years right, you know, we’re in a really good position and I’m really, really excited about that. The Nets are really in tremendous position. Now, look at the 2025 draft, which is loaded. There is real star power. This draft’s widely considered one of the better drafts in the last 10 years or so. Man, can you get a good player with the 2025 first round pick? This year’s drafts, you’re going to have foundational players at the top, but also the depth of the draft and the versatility of the players in the draft gives us a lot of excitement that we’re going to find, you know, a lot of good players for us to move forward with. The draft is so unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen. Picks get traded, players get traded, situations change constantly. So, you have to approach the draft the exact same way. Gathering all the intel, being able to understand, you know, who a player is, who he is for the organization. And, you know, a case study for us was this past year’s draft where we didn’t have a pick. Welcome to Brooklyn where we are on the precipice of ushering a new class of players into the NBA. This year’s draft is chalk full of diamonds in the rough. It feels like a night where almost anything can happen. This past year’s draft, there were so many scenarios where we could have easily gotten into the draft and if we didn’t have the preparation or the information that we needed on the players, we would not have been prepared. So, uncovering everything, you know, debating everything, all the attention to detail that’s needed, you have to have that done because, you know, anything can happen at any time in the draft and you never want to be caught in a position of being on your heels or or saying, “I don’t know.” Because it’s unacceptable for us. Knowing everything humanly possible about a player is so important. And that’s why NBA teams, you know, they’re not just basketball scouts, they’re also detectives at the same time. They do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that they know everything about these players as human beings. And they want to know, is this a person that I want to invest in? Is this someone that I want to have in my locker room? Is this someone that I want as the face of my franchise? And so, you have to make sure that you can trust this person. So post draft night, we’re kind of, you know, launched right into the 2025 prep ride away. We’re sending our scouts out to all the grassroots events, collecting all that information and then setting our list for this year. Start putting guys in different tiers um to see, you know, who are our priority teams, which teams have the most prospects, you know, who are the highest level prospects that we need to pay attention to. This is going to be a different year. We got a lot of guys to get through. Our range is crazy. you know, we could have a pick in every single section of the of the first round as well as a couple early and mid-second round picks. So, we got to cover everybody and be prepared and know, you know, what we’re doing at each junction of the draft. This time of year, we’ll have our scouting meetings, which we’re really excited about. We have an unbelievable group of scouts that have so many experiences that played overseas and coached in a wide variety of backgrounds for them. So, we’re using all those relationships, you know, whoever they have the strongest relationships with, we’re we’re asking them to tap into those and uh, you know, get the information that not a lot of people can get. So, really tapping into those, getting our focus list, and then from there, we set our practice schedules and we’re out and running. So, here’s what we’re going to do. in that board over there says disagree and commit. Okay. So, the challenge I have for this group is this group better to be the loudest scouting group I’ve ever seen. We are to disagree and we are committed. Let’s have that debate. Tell that story. Sean is of course leading the charge for all of us. Andy Bersong kind of handles more of the pro and performance side of it. I’m pretty focused on the amateur scouting and getting the draft right. That’s that’s my main responsibility. So working with me are scouts that are based in the different regions. So we have six scouts that are kind of all over the country. We have a strong group of international scouts based in Italy and Germany and and other places, you know, throughout there as well. And we’re all working together trying to collect all this information, debate it, you know, uh sort through it. roster construction wise like you get to a playoff situation all of a sudden guys that can’t shoot but they have some type of skill in which like it can be exploited like that’s just another lens in which you know you make sure that as you’re watching guys I think for me it’s like highly highly important this guy has 82 game value and this guy has 16 game value and understanding the difference you know in the two and I’d rather you know at the end of the day you know the 16 game value is going to be way more important but again that’s how we have these kind of discussions so that we can have all this stuff out in the table because it might be a thought that’s a really valid thought that now we’re all looking at the same thing and talking the same language. A player that’s known to be a big time player, but you talk to the coach, he says he’s not a practice player. He doesn’t like to practice. Where does that catch up with you on our level? I think it always does, you know, at some point to me for the majority of time. Like the guys don’t have good habits, you know, it’s something to really note cuz I think it always catches up the guys at some point. I think you got to spend time with them. You got to you got to see what really motivates them. Mhm. Because his whole life the kid’s been this kid’s going to be the man the man. So I think he somewhere along the line he was humble throughout his life and he had to and I think trying to find that that place is very hard. Your point is like just understanding their story. How does a guy obtain his grit? Has he been through something hard in life that he’s had to overcome? You know, has he shown these qualities all along? Understanding all those kind of things there again gives us a window into the player soul. And that’s what we’re trying to figure out. Those guys that can be thrown in this environment and be able to survive and thrive as opposed to a guy that’s going to be like, man, you know, all the pressure that he got to him and he wasn’t ready for it. I can understand that now because of these kind of behaviors along the way. It makes sense. When you’re assigned to a game, we’re a really collaborative group. We’re using all these different communication points and Sean is pretty much connected on all those. He might have a question himself or share his own thoughts. If we have the right intel and we feel pretty sure about this is who this person is, then we can give our coaches, here’s the trajectory, here’s how you use him, here’s how you get to him. His communications has to tone because he’s very collaborative as well. He’s actively, you know, involved in all the scouting process. So, he’s out there scouting right now. He just came back from, you know, Australia. Richard Miji and I find ourselves in the Gold Coast searching for untapped diamonds in the rough. Fish and chips, meat pies, whale watching, shitty weather, all part of this expedition that we’re on. Richard, anything stood out to you so far? I think you covered everything that I want to add. Yeah. Here in Australia, you’re looking at a diverse group. Several Australians are going to be here. There’s Europeans down here. There’s Americans from high school have come down here. Five, six, seven draft eligible players that will really fall into our range. So, I think it’s important to get in here early and see guys. I think going into a year you have an expectation of who the prospects are and then every year there’ll be someone that pops up. Video scouting is one thing, but seeing physically how they move and what they do, which would potentially be off camera, I think that’s important, but we’re going to rely on a network of scouts, consultants, and relationships just to gather the intel on what makes these guys tech. It’s not only seeing the prospects, but seeing the level of competition they’re playing against. It really helps your evaluations. None of these guys are polished at this particular point. You know, there’s a huge development piece and development plan that needs to be put in place, but there are certain things that will stand out and you’ll see a couple of these guys come up with an NBA move and then you go, okay, that’s something I see in our league and how do we grow that? What else can they do? Just spending some time away from the office is uh always good to build kind of a good trusting relationship. So where I can challenge his opinion or he challenged mine. Honestly, not much different, but he had more shooting touch than I anticipated. Yeah. Like maybe there’s something there with that. I’m not sure how he even that translates to Yeah, for sure. translates to our level or not. We know that if Sean’s out there doing the same thing that we’re doing, it kind of gives us more confidence and and more of encouragement to continue to to bite and press on. This year there’s just so much unknown with potentially six draft picks. So to know all ends of the draft throughout the draft is going to be paramount to us. I think you treat this draft like any other of utmost importance and it’s going to come in a hurry. War room this year is going to be an interesting one to say the least. So it’s a little bit uncharted territory. It’s something we embrace and uh you know we know exactly what’s at stake and we’ve got to get it right.

Watch the Nets front office prepare to make moves in the upcoming NBA Draft in the debut of SCOUT: Finding the Next Brooklyn Nets. With five picks (four in the first round), the Nets control the most first-rounders of any team in this year’s draft.

The first episode of this nine-part series goes inside preseason scouting meetings with GM Sean Marks, Assistant GM BJ Johnson, Head Coach Jordi Fernández, and the Nets’ scouting staff as they prepare to travel the world in search of young talent for Brooklyn’s future. Plus, follow Marks on a scouting trip to Australia.

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