Nolan Traore Drawing High Praise as Nets Rookie Continues to Impress
As the NBA calendar inches toward All-Star weekend, Nolan Traore isn’t just staying steady-he’s surging. The Brooklyn Nets rookie has been turning heads around the league, and it’s not just fans or analysts taking notice. One of the league’s most respected voices, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle, offered a glowing review of the young guard’s game-and it came from firsthand experience.
Carlisle, who owns a championship ring from his 2011 run with the Mavericks and recently guided Indiana to an Eastern Conference title, had to prep his team to deal with Traore’s unique skill set. And after facing him, he didn’t hold back.
“He causes problems,” Carlisle said before his Pacers edged out the Nets 115-110 on Wednesday night. “He’s on our prep video a lot, which tells you something. There’s seven, eight, nine clips of him.”
That kind of attention isn’t typical for a rookie, especially one still carving out his role on a rebuilding team. But Traore’s game demands it. Carlisle described him as “crafty”-a word that, in coaching circles, often signals a player with a high basketball IQ and the ability to manipulate defenses in subtle, effective ways.
“We gotta keep him in front,” Carlisle added. “He’s crafty, he drives it, he shoots it from all four levels. He just creates a lot of issues for a defense.”
That versatility was on full display heading into Wednesday’s matchup. Traore had just notched the first double-double of his career, tallying 13 points and 13 assists. It wasn’t just a stat-padding performance-it was a showcase of his ability to control pace, read defenses, and elevate the play of those around him.
Against Indiana, the Nets jumped out to a 13-point lead early, powered in part by Traore’s tempo and decision-making. But as the game wore on, the Pacers leaned on their experience to claw back, exposing some of the defensive lapses that come with a young, injury-depleted roster.
Brooklyn’s current situation mirrors Indiana’s in some ways. The Pacers are without their star, Tyrese Haliburton, who’s sidelined with a torn Achilles.
That’s forced Carlisle to lean on a younger rotation-something Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez is already familiar with. Brooklyn has rolled out as many as five rookies this season, with three often seeing starter-level minutes.
Traore has cracked the starting lineup, though largely due to injuries-fellow rookie Egor Demin and veteran Michael Porter Jr. were both unavailable Wednesday. Still, opportunity is only part of the equation. What Traore is doing with those minutes is what’s turning heads.
Carlisle, who also won a title as a player with the Celtics in 1986, made a point to credit Fernandez and his staff for the work they’ve done with Brooklyn’s young core.
“They do a great job of developing young players here,” Carlisle said. “Jordi has been really top of the heap with what [his staff] has done the last couple of years.”
And when it comes to Traore, Carlisle sees more than just a flash-in-the-pan rookie moment-he sees a trajectory.
“Traore’s gonna keep getting better,” he said. “Demin’s getting better.
Their young bigs have progressed a lot over the last couple of years. The future here is very bright.”
It’s not every day a rookie earns that kind of respect from a coach with championship credentials. But Traore’s blend of speed, vision, and poise is already making him a player opposing teams have to game-plan for-and that’s saying something before he’s even hit the All-Star break.