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Rookie Mikel Brown Jr. — the centerpiece of the Nets rebuild — is set to make his anticipated NBA debut in Wednesday’s season opener against the visiting Hornets.
The No. 6 pick and his Nets teammates are intimately familiar with the low expectations on this team, to be one of the league’s worst.
To them, it’s fuel.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Brown said. “But at the end of the day, man, we focus on ourselves right now, focusing on getting better. Like I said before, every game we have something to prove. So that’s the mentality going into it.
“I mean every game is something we have to prove. We don’t really look at the outside world when it comes to that stuff. We focus on ourselves and what we have going on within this organization and this team. We know what we’re capable of, so we got to go out every single night to show that.”
After missing the first three preseason games with a rolled left ankle, Brown played in the finale at Miami on a minutes limit.
He had 18 points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals in 18 minutes against the Heat.
Jordi Fernández has suggested he wouldn’t consider starting a player that would be available for fewer than 24 minutes. He wouldn’t answer whether Brown’s minutes limit would be relaxed Wednesday against Charlotte.
Keon Ellis started every preseason game at off-guard, while Egor Dëmin moved over to point guard. Ellis has said consistency of role — regardless of as a starter or reserve — will help.
“Oh, absolutely. Just because it comes down, it helps everything,” Ellis said. “When you’re going in the game, if you’re starting, if you’re coming off the bench — which to me that doesn’t really mean a lot — but the consistency of knowing where you’re going to play, who you’re going in the game with, the rhythm that you guys have, that all matters.”
Joshua Jefferson, Brooklyn’s other first-round pick in June, has been cleared for the opener after missing the entire preseason.
His playing time will surely be even more curtailed than Brown’s.
“A player that hasn’t played a game yet would be, because once again, if you haven’t played a preseason game and then you put your body out there into a real NBA game, I don’t think it would be fair for him to play crazy amount of stints or minutes,” Fernández said. “So yeah, we always take care of our … I’m not going to tell you if he is or how many minutes are, but we always take care of their bodies.”
Michael Porter Jr. courted more podcast controversy by opting to interview right-wing social media personality SNEAKO, who has at points been banned from Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for being violent, homophobic, misogynist and antisemitic.
The pending free agent didn’t endorse SNEAKO’s positions and criticized him afterward.