NEW YORK -- Brooklyn Nets rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. will be one of the biggest storylines for the Nets after the team selected him with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Brooklyn took Brown with the thought of him being one of the cornerstone pieces of the franchise amidst its rebuild and the rookie gave his thoughts on his NBA regular-season debut.
"It was great, I enjoyed it. Obviously, we didn't get the outcome we wanted, but I enjoyed being out there. It's the first of many, we got many more to go," Brown said after Wednesday's 110-103 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. Brown was one of the 10 players that head coach Jordi Fernandez used on Wednesday and while he had his bright spots, he also knows where he has to improve.
"I just got to slow down, pick my spots better. I've been talking to Julius about it, just really trying to slow down," Brown continued. "Everything I want is there. It's just all about me being patient through it through it all. On the defensive end, just keeping that same mentality of not letting the guards touch the paint, flying around. There's a lot of things I can clean up, but it's game one."
Brown, who played 20 minutes off the bench, put up six points, three rebounds, and three assists while shooting 2-of-8 from the field and 1-of-3 from behind the three-point line. While the Hornets did not have the services of Coby White and Kon Knueppel due to injury, Brown still had to go toe-to-toe with the likes of former Nets guard Dennis Schroder and 2026 first-round pick Christian Anderson, just to name a couple.
"[He's] still got to get used to the physicality of the game, the pace of play. I still want him to touch the paint, [but] right now, he's very electric," Fernandez said of Brown during his postgame interview. Brown should have plenty of opportunities to show what he's made of over the course of this season, but he's also willing to take every game as a moment to get better so that he can be the player he's destined to be.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. reacts to debut against Hornets