The Brooklyn Nets have a roster crunch on their hands, and that kind of problem tends to sort itself out fast once training camp starts. Too many players, too few rotation minutes, and every spot has to be earned.
On Thursday’s episode of “Locked On Nets,” ClutchPoints’ Erik Slater and NetsDaily’s Lucas Kaplan dug into which players can break through in Brooklyn. Slater came away convinced that Josh Minott and Keon Ellis have the clearest path to being rotation fixtures because both bring something the Nets badly need: shooting and defense.
“They'll jack the threes up, and I feel like they could probably hit them at a better rate than some of these other Nets young guys,” Slater said.
That matters in a hurry for a team that tied with the Sacramento Kings for last in three-point percentage at 34%, while also sitting as an average defense and giving up the 17th-most points per game at 115.9. Minott and Ellis check boxes Brooklyn can’t afford to ignore.
Minott’s case starts with the shot. After the Boston Celtics traded him, he hit 39.5% of his threes on 4.8 attempts across 16 games. That stretch included two 20-plus-point outings, one against the Atlanta Hawks on March 12 and another against the New York Knicks on March 20.
His jumper is quick, and that release makes him useful in catch-and-shoot situations. When defenses collapsed on drives, Brooklyn’s playmakers found him open on the wings or in the corners.
The Nets clearly value him, too. General manager Sean Marks praised Minott in his exit interview, saying he was impressed with the 23-year-old while he was averaging 10.8 points through an ankle injury. Brooklyn doubled down on that belief this offseason by signing him to a two-year, $9 million contract.
Ellis brings a similar two-way appeal, just from the guard spot. The 26-year-old looks like Brooklyn’s best bet to handle point-of-attack defense off the bench, and the numbers back up the reputation. He finished in the 90th percentile range in multiple defensive stats per 100 possessions, with 2.7 steals, 1.5 blocks, 6.4 deflections, 1.6 turnovers forced and a stop percentage that all sit among the league’s best marks.
That profile makes him the kind of defender who can take on top perimeter scorers every night. His first big test in Brooklyn could come in the home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers, his former team, where he may draw Donovan Mitchell or James Harden as his primary assignment.
There’s also a built-in comfort level with coach Jordi Fernández. The two worked together in Sacramento from 2022 to 2024, when the Kings signed Ellis as an undrafted rookie and Fernández was the associate head coach.
For a young Nets team trying to compete and win next season, Minott and Ellis look like the two players who fit the bill.
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Nets Rebuild May Ride On One Young Backcourt Taking Off
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Dmins summer has been about showing he can move forward after an injury, and he reportedly looked better as the offseason progressed into summer league. Brown, meanwhile, flashed the kind of two-way potential teams love to see from a young guard, giving Brooklyn a reason to believe these two can become more than just long-term projects. For a team still sorting out its direction, the real intrigue is whether this pair can take off fast enough to shape what comes next. [Read more 🡒]