Did Sean Marks WASTE Brooklyn Nets’ FIVE first-round picks?

Did Sean Marks WASTE Brooklyn Nets’ FIVE first-round picks?

the Nets they made a record five first round picks in the first round of this year’s NBA draft but how did Brooklyn do with their draft picks and should they have made as many picks as they did this year well joining me to break it all down is New York Post Nets beat writer Brian Lewis you see him right there brian how are you doing after a long night at the Barlay Center how’s it going it was long but I’m doing well how you doing i’m doing pretty good man i I can’t complain it was a very interesting first round of the draft particularly for the Nets and Brian you and I spoke before the draft and neither of us along with many others in the media believed that the Nets would make five selections in the first round this year so my question for you is this was making all five picks the right move here for Brooklyn i mean it’s hard to say i mean we won’t know for a couple years right until we see these guys develop um I mean I will full disclosure I’ll tell you I did not believe for a second that they were going to take all five of these picks you know I thought it would personally I thought it was posturing uh if I had picks and I was actively looking to move around and trade some of them I probably would have just I don’t know let it slip that I was comfortable to take all five of them casually mentioned that I have this great development head coach and whatnot but turned out not to be a smoke screen it was real uh for better or worse uh it turned out to be it turned out to be real yeah turned out to be real very shocking didn’t think they would make all the picks you and I even talked to how they possibly might try to kick some of those picks back but future picks that did not happen okay but when we look at the picks the Nets first pick that they selected last night at number eight joerger Deon point guard out of BYU many fans expected the Nets to try to move up Brian or take the best player available at number eight deon was projected to go in the late teens did the Nets reach by taking Deon with their first pick here i mean I’m not qualified to say but I mean certainly the experts that follow this closely think so um now granted I mean the experts get it wrong i mean Minnesota I mean Minnesota passed on Steph Curry twice in the same draft right um SGA went 11 i think uh Giannis went 15 so this is a very imperfect science i will acknowledge that but Jagger is listen he’s the best passer in this class by a mile um but there are some glaring glaring serious issues um he’s not athletic at all uh he couldn’t get past people uh playing in the Big 12 so it you know it makes you wonder whether he’s going to be able to get past people in the NBA um and now he did tweak his shooting motion a little bit and I mean most people that you talk to will tell you that his shot is the swing skill uh to determine whether he’s going to be a legitimate NBA starter he did not shoot well and has not shot well in the past i think he was 27% from three uh at BYU but now part of that was a knee injury that he had right he was shooting about 38% before he hurt his knee uh and then he was terrible after that uh he tweaked his shooting motion in the offseason he looked good at the combine and he had a great pro day so the Nets will tell you that they believe in his shot if they’re right it’s a good pick if they are wrong it’s a horrible that’s basically what this comes down to yeah and as you said with all these guys as you said time will tell but Tashot is the swing factor here in determining him as a prospect now besides Deon the Nets they did take two other international point guards selected nolan Trayori and Ben Sarf all three point guards selected they’re good playmakers and we talked about how good Deon is with the passing but they all struggle to shoot so how encouraged are the Nets that they can find their point guard of the future among this group because Brian they look like they’re trying to find that guy among this group so how encouraged are they by taking three point guards here in the first round of the draft that they can find that point guard of the future oh I mean they don’t Yeah they don’t look like they’re trying i mean they are definitely trying and they are taking home run swings to try to do that listen they haven’t drafted a I mean the most creative player that they’ve drafted probably since Shawn Marx has been here and it’s been a decade probably Carris Levert i mean it’s been an issue listen they when they got DLO I don’t mean the second time i mean the first time they traded for him right they signed Kyrie all right so these are not guys that they drafted um and point guard has been a hot mess since Kyrie left all right so they are clearly taking upside swings at the position uh listen a year ago if this we were having this conversation 10 months ago 11 months ago Treyori would have been viewed as a top five pick he was that highly regarded he had a tough first half of the season came on in the second half recouped a little bit of that shine um so they are hedging their bets uh Trayori is a very different kind of prospect uh where Jagger Dean is a borderline non-athlete Trayori is the fastest player in this class uh an electric pick and roll player uh so they are th they are throwing a lot of darts at the board hoping to be able to get this right yeah they got to get it right we will see there a couple more things for you Brian with their nonpoint guard picks two of them Brooklyn selected wing Drake Powell at 22 big man Danny Wolf at number 27 which of these two players do you think can be immediate impact players for the Nets next season being that they were veteran college players so which of these two do you think can help the Nets next season uh I mean the short answer is to say Powell uh I listen I I mean I’m being slightly glib but I mean you can make the argument that Wolfe is the fourth point guard that they drafted i mean he essentially ran the point for Michigan you know a lot of big big pick and roll um per 36 i mean he averaged about 4.2 assists he’s got this funky ball handling game uh so Jordy loves like creative guys in the high post and Wolfe certainly can do that but I mean Powell is the outlier i mean he is the ultimate 3 and D archetype shot about 38% from deep he’s one of the best defenders in the draft he’s probably the best athlete i mean he had the best vertical at the combine best standing vertical at the combine so I mean he’s a guy that I think has a high floor he’s probably the safest pick because you know from the minute he gets there he can come in and play a role which is locking up people on the wing which is something they need next year at least and look the Nets are still in the rebuilding process but it is something that they can absolutely use okay last thing for me Brian look I know it’s early draft just happened first round just happened but Nets fans from what I’ve seen and heard and I know you’ve seen it too on social media they are not too thrilled about this draft and the five picks again I know it’s early but I got to make you professor Lewis here how do you grade what the Nets did in the first round and what kind of player do you think they might target in the second round where they have the 36 pick i mean yes you’re correct that the reaction to this uh has been dire i’m going to read you one major agent uh this was ongoing in the draft it was around pick 25 and he texted me unsolicited he said “Bro they more often than not played three two-way players at a time to end up with three Matt players so far insane.” Now I am not going to tell you that everybody is as down on this draft as that um I think a lot of people would say the bottom of their draft were more value guys um you know Saraf was probably capable of being drafted higher wol definitely was capable of being drafted higher some people thought he might even go ahead of Queen uh so I’m not going to sit here and say that none of these guys will amount to being better than where they were drafted but clearly the Nets they kind of leaned into a particular identity with this high basketball IQ high processing character guys playmaking passing guys that’s what they leaned into they took a look at the NBA finals and they clearly saw that guys that did not have high basketball IQs looked sorely out of place on the court right so that’s what they’re gambling on that’s what they’re leaning into that’s what Shawn is banking on going forward uh and listen a lot of these were risky swings right fans have been crying for a while for them to take upside shots all right well that’s what they did fans have been asking for them to tank mark my words they will be tanking next season so right they got what they wanted yeah fans got what they wanted some fans wanted a higher pick they wanted Ace Bailey they wanted Dylan Harper i think doesn’t mean they didn’t try it was going to be tough for them to get there we’ll see what they do in the second round with the 36 pick that is Brian Lewis the great beat writer here for the New York Post covering the Brooklyn Nets he will be covering the rest of this draft and’ll have you all updated on that brian always a pleasure to talk some Nets basketball with you we’ll do it again soon my friend no it was great talking to you

Brian Lewis, The Post’s Nets beat reporter, joins Dexter Henry to break down Brooklyn’s decision to keep all five of their 2025 first-round draft picks, which set an NBA record for most selections made by a single team in a round.

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