Which Nets have most to prove as season approaches?

Brian Lewis takes a stab at who on the Brooklyn Nets roster — and in the front office — has the most to prove as 2026-27 approaches. As you’d imagine with a team so young and so inexperienced, the list is long.

Things will get going soon. Sean Marks & co. have until October 31 to make decisions on the future of the Flatbush 5. The Nets must decide by then whether to extend all of them for a third year on their four-year deals, the first two years being guaranteed. Egor Demin is a n0-brainer. He had a solid rookie year and looked even better in Summer League. The four others taken at Nos. 19, 22, 26 and 27 are highly likely to get another year, but as Lewis points out, it is the NBA and nothing is truly guaranteed.

[Nolan] Traoré was the next-highest drafted of the lot behind Dëmin, but missed this year’s summer league due to injury. He has bulked up, but must stay healthy and learn to finish. [Drake] Powell struggled mightily in both Sacramento and Las Vegas, shooting horribly. [Ben] Saraf and [Danny] Wolf also need to space the floor better.

It seems unlikely that any of that quartet — even Powell — wouldn’t get their options picked up. But it should be pointed out that two years ago, the Nets exercised their third-year option on 2023 first-round pick Dariq Whitehead, but after a poor season, he was waived the next October…

To paraphrase a great Yankee, it gets late early in the NBA.

The player taken before Whitehead in the 2023 NBA Draft also has a deadline. The Nets have until October 19 to decide on whether to give Noah Clowney a multi-year extension which at this point seems unlikely meaning the 22-year-old will become a restricted free agent next July. Clowney didn’t have bad season last year, averaging 12.3 points on 40/33/80 shooting to go along with 4.1 rebounds in 66 games, 60 of them starts. Clowney has down flashes of his potential, recording games of seven 3-pointers and seven blocks in the past two seasons and getting to the line more often too, but the team would like to have seen more progress. Now, he’ll have competition.

With the arrival of [Julius] Randle, Clowney is almost certainly…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nets-most-prove-season-approaches-143048943.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-09-23 14:30:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.