The Long Island Nets are rolling into their 11th season with a training camp roster that mixes NBA ties, local roots and a few names that already feel familiar around Brooklyn.
Practice got started Monday at HSS Training Center in Brooklyn, and the club will keep working Wednesday at the Nets facility before shifting to the Yes You Can Center in Westbury. Media Day is set for Thursday afternoon at Nassau Coliseum, another stop in a week that is bouncing the team around before the real games begin. Long Island opens the season Nov. 7 in Greensboro, N.C., against the Swarm, and will play 50 games this year, including four in suburban Montreal.
The roster announcement included 17 players, highlighted by the three two-way players: Chaney Johnson, Grant Nelson and second-round rookie Tyler Bilodeau. Johnson and Nelson were both with Long Island last season, while Bilodeau has been sidelined by a shoulder injury.
Brooklyn also assigned three players to the affiliate around the same time: 2026 first-round draft pick Joshua Jefferson, plus 2025 first-rounders Drake Powell and Ben Saraf. Powell and Saraf were both with Long Island last season, too.
There’s plenty of overlap with Brooklyn’s summer work as well. Dion Brown, Dain Dainja, Ben Humrichous, Aaron Scott and Dwight Murray all spent time on the Nets’ Summer League roster this year.
Brown, Dainja and Humrichous are on Exhibit 10 deals, which would bring a $91,000 signing bonus if they stay with Long Island for 60 days. Scott and Murray came in through trades and appear to be on standard G League contracts.
That’s part of what has made Long Island such a useful pipeline in recent years. The club has developed a reputation for getting players moving upward, and eight players on the current NBA roster have spent time in Uniondale. Drew Timme and Killian Hayes also passed through Long Island before moving on.
A few players stand out immediately as possible watch-list names. Scott is one of them.
The 6-foot-7 wing is 23 and previously signed an Exhibit 10 with the Boston Celtics after a Summer League run. He played 26 games for the Maine Celtics, starting seven, and put up 7.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.
His college path included three seasons at North Texas from 2021-24 before he transferred to St. John’s for his senior year, just 20 miles from the Coliseum.
Playing under Rick Pitino, Scott averaged 8.4 points and started 30 games for the Big East champs.
Jonathan Pierre is another name with some intrigue attached to it. Long Island traded for the 6-foot-9 forward earlier this month, and his age and size make him more than a run-of-the-mill G League addition. No Ceilings NBA had pegged him as a sleeper in the 2025 class, but he went undrafted.
DJ Rodman also joins the mix, bringing a familiar last name with him as the son of NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman. He played for the Greensboro Swarm last season, averaging 7.3 points and 3.5 rebounds. At 6-foot-6, he knocked down 60% of his threes, though on just 2.8 attempts per game, so the sample size is small even if the profile is interesting.
Among the players with NBA experience, Isaiah “Zay” Wong has the deepest resume. The 6-foot-3 guard has appeared in 21 career NBA games with the Charlotte Hornets and Indiana Pacers. Last season, he played in the ACL and Spain’s top league, averaged 14.6 points and earned a reputation as one of the league’s top passers.
The rest of the group gives Long Island a more eclectic feel. Nick Pringle is a 6-foot-10 big who spent last season at Arkansas.
Before that, he helped Alabama reach the Final Four in 2024 with Grant Nelson, his current teammate, then finished his college career with the Razorbacks. Tidjiane Dioumassi, a Paris-born guard selected in the G League international draft, played at Southern University and Western Carolina.
For Western Carolina last season, he appeared in 29 games and averaged 8.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists as a 3-and-D specialist. Wooga Poplar rounds out that group, after signing an Exhibit 10 with the Chicago Bulls last year and averaging 8.9 points for Windy City.
He played at Miami and Villanova and was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.
Long Island also brought three local tryout players into camp: Jeriah Coleman, Jordan Dingle and Cedric Mbiaba. Coleman may be the most interesting of that trio.
He’s a 7-foot-1 center who spent five years at Nevada after two years at Clarendon College, where he finished his final JUCO season first on his team and third in the country in blocks per game at 3.6. He struggled to get steady minutes at Nevada, but an NBA scout told NetsDaily that rim-protecting big men are among the top players to emerge from the G League in today’s game.
Dingle adds a clear local connection. The Valley Stream native is 26, spent four years in college and even logged a year at St.
John’s. He began at Penn, where he won Ivy League Player of the Year as a senior while averaging 23.4 points per game, second in the nation.
After college, he spent a year in Serbia and then signed with a team in Kosovo in March.
Training camp runs through Nov. 5, and with 14 players in camp not counting the three two-ways, the organization has three cuts to make before the season starts. The home opener is set for Nov. 13 against the College Park Skyhawks.
In Other News...
Nets Let A Winnable Road Game Slip Away At The Worst Time
Brooklyn had every reason to feel good about how it had fought its way into a tight finish in Boston, especially with rookie Mikel Brown Jr. giving the Nets a burst of life in the fourth quarter. He scored 13 points in the period, and for a stretch it looked like Brooklyn might steal a road game it had no business controlling for long stretches.
Instead, a late mistake gave the Celtics the opening they needed in a game that was already hanging by a thread. The Nets left with a 125-124 overtime loss, a brutal ending in a matchup that had been there for the taking and will linger because the final possession turned from a chance to close it out into another reminder of how thin the margin is on the road. [Read more 🡒]
Why The Nets Wanted No Part Of Jaylen Brown
When Boston came calling with a trade idea for Jaylen Brown, the Nets reportedly didnt need long to think it over. According to league insider Brian Lewis, Brooklyn passed on the offer because Browns close relationship with Kyrie Irving was part of the package, and the organization was wary of reopening old doors it had worked hard to close.
For the Nets, it was less about Browns talent than the memory attached to the move. League sources said Brooklyn wanted no part of anything that could resemble another Kyrie Irving situation, a reminder of how much the franchise still measures potential additions against the turbulence that came with Irvings stint there. Brown eventually landed with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he is playing now, but the reason Brooklyn backed away says plenty about the standards the team is applying to its roster decisions. [Read more 🡒]
Nets May Have Avoided A Bigger Egor Demin Scare
Egor Demins night ended early in Boston after he left with a right leg contusion and never returned, a frustrating turn in an overtime loss for the Nets. The injury came after a collision with Paul George, and Brooklyn was left to sort through another short-handed finish while trying to assess how much trouble its rookie guard was really in.
Demin offered a calmer read after the game, saying the issue does not appear serious and that he expects to be back in a couple of days. Even so, there was still some uncertainty about whether he would need imaging, and his availability for Fridays matchup with the Detroit Pistons remains up in the air. [Read more 🡒]