The Nets are taking the slow road with Mikel Brown Jr., and for now that means a minutes cap, a bench role, and a lot of patience from Jordi Fernandez.
Brown was slowed by an ankle injury in the preseason, and the team has kept him on a limit since opening night. He logged 20 minutes off the bench in Brooklyn’s first game, and that approach appears set to continue for the foreseeable future.
“It’s how it is until we change it, and right now we know the sample size is going to be way bigger,” Fernandez said after Friday’s practice. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, one game, he’s good to go.’
… I mean, if you guys think about it, he played (21 games last season). This season is 82, right?
Is he gonna play all 82? No.
We feel like he can take steps. Obviously, at some point he’ll be able to play more games and be able to play back to backs, but it’s not right now or anytime soon.”
Brown added 20 more minutes in Saturday’s game at Cleveland, which likely puts him on the shelf for Sunday against Indiana.
That matchup also gave Brown a chance to go up against Donovan Mitchell, another Louisville product who has been a mentor to him for years. Mitchell was more than willing to rave about what he sees in the rookie.
“Not many high school kids pay attention to the details. I’m having conversations with (Brown) like I’m talking to James Harden,” Mitchell said.
“He’s going to do amazing things in Brooklyn. Nets fans should be really excited, because they got one.”
Brooklyn’s other 2025 first-round picks didn’t get the chance to make an impression in the opener. Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf remained on the bench for the loss to Charlotte, with Fernandez choosing to stay with the rotation he already trusts as he tries to build continuity.
There’s also a bigger-picture issue hanging over the early part of the season: the Nets want to push the pace, but they can’t do it without cleaning up the glass. Charlotte punished them on the offensive boards, grabbing 15 of them and turning that into a 20-8 edge in second-chance points.
“We have to impose our physicality on those things and hit people first,” Julius Randle said. “So, I’ll set a tone with that.”
Egor Demin, meanwhile, is already thinking about how to help when his shot goes cold. In the opener, the second-year guard went 2-of-10 from the field and finished with four points, but he said the answer is finding other ways to impact the game.
“Opportunities are there, everything is given to me, and I just got to be able to execute on the level that I want to be at,” he said.
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Nets Already Face A Tough Early Test They Can't Afford To Flunk
The first week of the season has already handed Brooklyn a reminder that early losses can carry extra weight, especially when the margin for error is thin. The Nets dropped their opener to the Hornets, and now the attention turns to how they respond against a Cleveland group that is trying to steady itself after blowing a huge lead in its own opener, with Kenny Atkinson admitting the Cavaliers struggled once the pressure ramped up.
For Brooklyn, the matchup brings a few familiar stress points into focus at once. Containing Donovan Mitchell is never simple, and the Nets are also trying to sort through how their young pieces fit in at the start of the year. Egor Demin did not make a three-pointer in the opener, while rookie Mikel Brown Jr. showed flashes in his debut, leaving the Nets with both reasons for patience and reasons to demand a cleaner showing soon. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Turned A Brutal Night Into One Painful What If
For most of the night, it looked like Brooklyn was headed for a long, frustrating finish against Cleveland. Then the Nets started chipping away, with Michael Porter Jr. carrying the offense at 28 points and nine rebounds, Julius Randle adding 23 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Egor Dmin giving the rally a jolt with a 22-point night that helped turn a blowout feel into something much more tense.
Brooklyns comeback bid made the closing minutes feel like a game the Nets could have stolen, which only deepened the sting when it slipped away 125-121. The late surge was real enough to leave one of those painful what ifs hanging over the locker room, especially after a night when the Cavaliers had once looked comfortably in control. [Read more 🡒]