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A lot is going on in Long Island! Even before Friday morning’s moves that sent Grant Nelson to Brooklyn on a 10-day, returned Ben Saraf to the big club, and sent Drake Powell to the G League, the Nets’ G League affiliate lost a tight one, 119-116, to the Grand Rapids Gold Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum.
And in the midst of it all, Brooklyn may have found a new development prospect in Chaney Johnson.
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Johnson is the newest and youngest two-way player on the Long Island Nets roster. At 6’8”, 225 pounds with a 6’11” wingspan and a max vertical approaching 40”, the 23-year-old Johnson has 3-and-D potential. Signed off the Cleveland Charge just before New Year’s, Johnson keeps making progress, and Thursday night, that progress reached a high point.
The Auburn product had his biggest game as a pro, scoring 29 points, one night after scoring 19! Johnson connected on 10 of his 12 tries, while hitting all three of his tries. The Alabama native also had seven rebounds, one assist, and two blocks … both in crucial moments for Long Island. He did everything he could to put the team in a position to win, but the Gold had their number.
Indeed, after a somewhat slow start, Johnson has taken off in the last nine games, averaging 15.5 points while shooting 77.7% from two and 32.0% from three and grabbing 5.5 rebounds. He was not the only Long Islander to impress on the back-to-back at Nassau Coliseum.
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Complementing Johnson’s game, Saraf had another big game in what he no doubt hopes will be his 21st and final game in the G League.
Coming off his 12-for-19, 32-point shooting performance the night before, Saraf followed it up with yet another solid offensive output. He connected on nine of his 15 shots and connected on three of his six attempts from beyond the arc for 21 points, giving him 53 points in a little more than 24 hours. He also had two rebounds, two assists, and three steals, the most in the game.
However, one glaring issue with Saraf has always been ball protection. Saraf turned the ball over five times, Nolan Traore had the same issue in the early going of this season, and…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/moves-ben-saraf-chaney-johnson-184141218.html
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Publish date : 2026-02-27 18:41:00
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