Mikel Brown Jr. carries a great burden, but even more confidence

Earlier this week, Net Income definedBrooklyn’s decision to select Mikel Brown Jr. at No. 6 overall as the franchise’s “biggest decision since John Calipari muffed 1996 Draft and wimped out by deciding against taking Kobe Bryant.”

Debate the particulars if you want, but the point is clear: Mikel Brown Jr. has the weight of a franchise on his shoulders. Egor Dëmin had a promising rookie season, particularly shooting the ball, and profiles (potentially) as a nice contributor to winning teams for seasons to come. If that turns out to be the case, that’s a successful pick at #8 overall.

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But Brown Jr. is really who Brooklyn’s rebuild rests upon. There are other avenues to improvement; Brian Lewis of New York Post reported on Monday evening that the Nets have shown interest in Trey Murphy II and Cason Wallace in the trade market. Mitchell Robinson, Keon Ellis, and Rui Hachimura are free agents that have been linked to Brooklyn (perhaps simply because the Nets have cap space), but general consensus around the league is that the Nets are more active on the trade block.

Regardless, Brooklyn is not locked into this roster, but they are locked into Mikel Brown Jr.. He is either the 20-year-old star guard of the future or the representative of an outright tank failure (or, more likely, somewhere in the middle). And he is one heck of a fascinating prospect to tote such responsibility.

Obviously, there’s the pure talent gleaming off him, the logo-threes, the handles, the dunks … we’re all familiar by now. And he is now officially a Brooklyn Net; the team introduced him at the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center on Monday afternoon, along with fellow draft picks Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau…

Brown Jr. touts many qualities other recent Nets’ picks have. He is incredibly polite, a bit soft-spoken, eager to talk about the good of the team rather than his own career. The 6’4″ guard is also undeniably, overwhelmingly confident in his abilities.

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Given that he met with the Nets three times before the draft, I asked Brown Jr. how deep certain X’s and O’s conversations went; he did not hesitate to…


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Publish date : 2026-06-30 03:05:00

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