Brooklyn and Sacramento have a new chapter in their long-running back-and-forth, and this one comes with Rookie of the Year buzz attached.
At the center of it are Mikel Brown Jr. and Darius Acuff Jr., two lottery picks whose paths keep crossing. Brown, who has 5% odds to win the award, is still being counted on by Brooklyn as a franchise piece as he develops. Acuff, the Arkansas guard, landed with Sacramento after the Kings and Nets were widely connected leading up to June’s draft.
The draft chatter had plenty of moving parts. Brooklyn held the sixth pick and Sacramento sat at No. 7, and several reports suggested the Nets might take Acuff to pressure the Kings into a trade for extra draft capital.
Instead, Brooklyn stayed with Brown, and the relationship he built with general manager Sean Marks and coach Jordi Fernández won out. The three met three times during the draft process.
What makes this pairing stand out is the history. Brown and Acuff have already squared off multiple times, first in high school, then in college, and again in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Both guards spent their senior year in Florida. Brown played at DME Academy in Daytona Beach, while Acuff suited up for IMG Academy in Bradenton. Their first meeting came on Jan. 26, 2025, when Acuff helped IMG edge Brown and DME, 65-63.
Two months later, they were back on opposite sides at the McDonald’s All-American Game. Brown represented Team West, Acuff played for Team East, and this time Brown came out on top as Team West won 105-92.
They met again in college for the third time in 11 months. On Dec.
3, 2025, Louisville played Arkansas, and Acuff’s Razorbacks won the game. Even so, Brown had the better individual night, finishing with 22 points on 7-for-19 shooting.
Brown answered again in Las Vegas. In Brooklyn’s 115-83 win, he posted 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, added five assists, two steals and a block, and once more pulled the head-to-head series back to even.
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