Which Brooklyn Nets rookie guard showcased STAR potential at Summer League? | NBA Draft deep dive

Which Brooklyn Nets rookie guard showcased STAR potential at Summer League? | NBA Draft deep dive

Coming up, which of the Net’s rookie point guards looks like a highlevel long-term piece? I’ll answer that after this. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Lockdown Nets podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets beat reporter for clutchoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. This show is 100% free on all those great platforms. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. And on today’s show, I’m going to be breaking down what we saw from Jaor Gilman, Nolan Troy, and Ben Sarra with the Nets at Summer League. I’ll analyze their strengths, weaknesses, and their chances of developing into highlevel pieces down the line. Rejoining the podcast now is Lucas Kaplan, Nets writer for Nets Daily. And Lucas, we are here to talk more about the fallout from summer league with a focus on Brooklyn’s rookie class. And in this episode of focus on their guards, the three guards between Joryan, Nolan, Troy, Ben Saraf, we got to see all of them play three games out in Las Vegas. Flash some strengths, flash some glaring weaknesses as well. When you look at the totality of it leading up to the draft and after, really digging into what they did on their film last season and their three appearances at summer league, who have you come away with most encourage of those three guards that they’re really going to stick in the NBA long term? If the question is stick in the NBA long term, I think it probably has to be Jagor just because I do see the shooting and it’s not even from summer league. Like it’s such a small sample size. I I made this point when I was writing, right? He went 10 of 23 from three. One of those was like a crazy bounce that hit the back of the rim. You know, if that rolls out, his percentage goes down by five points. So very small sample size, but tall pass, I do think he can shoot. I’m not using that as a knock against him. Tall pass shoot can survive on defense being 69 in shoes. That’s a long-term NBA player probably even if he doesn’t quite, you know, outperform his draft slot. Um, but that’s no shade to the other two. Again, really early, but like I could see Nolan Trayore sticking around as just pretty good defensive guard. I think he has the potential to do that. I think he has the potential to get into the paint and make decisions that a team will live with. So, I say those two, there’s nothing really to be worried about in terms of their long-term prospects quite yet. All right, let’s dig into Jagor first because he’s also the player that I came away with more encouraged with having a long-term role in the NBA. Obviously, because of the shooting, because that was a major concern coming in. A lot of people viewed it as his swing scale. And he looked really confident, really comfortable off the dribble, off the catch out in Las Vegas. So, let’s dig in a little bit more to him and what we saw out in Las Vegas because I think it was obviously a little bit different than what we anticipated and what a lot of Nets fans anticipated. You know, this is a guy who came in, everybody was talking about him being a point guard, his elite passing ability, all the things that he did from that perspective. And then he comes in the summer league and he pretty much is just a wing. Like playing a not exclusively offball role, but mostly off the ball, not a lot of pick and roll ball handling. Much more of a catch and shoot guy. I mean, he took 27 field goals in Las Vegas. 23 of them were three-point attempts. One of them was a dunk in transition. That was kind of like a no-brainer. So, there really was limited to no, you know, driving, paint touches, two-point ability. We didn’t see much of his playmaking. And I think a lot of that is probably due to the environment he was in and just the lack of structure and the guys that he had around him there. But when you look at what he did in Las Vegas and the role that he played, did any of what he did and you know the limitations or some of the things that you saw him do on the ball or didn’t see him do on the ball, did any of that change kind of how you were viewing him and how you were thinking about him offensively? I don’t think so. You know, I I I’m not surprised that he is a very willing and quick trigger. like he took over nine three-point attempts per game per 100 at BYU. So, and also just the intel seems like he’s an eminently coachable like we’ll do whatever’s asked kind of guy and we know the Nets are going to ask him to shoot. So, I wouldn’t say anything really surprised me. There were a couple nice passes. I think in the Wizards game he got all the way like under the rim and made a lefty pass to a shooter on the wing. So, I’d say that was a pretty typical Jaor experience if you account for the fact that he was playing next to Nolan Trayor and, you know, Ben Sarafh and even Danny Wolf a lot of the time like that’s a very new environment for him. And I like the point you brought up about the lack of structure in that he’s not Cam Johnson, but we saw Cam Johnson who is another like-sized wing that doesn’t really have the shakiest handle or I should say the burstiest handle. He was diagrammed into a lot of pick and roll, a lot of dribble handoff opportunities by Jordy last year. You know, like a pin down into a screen, some offball movement into a DHO, right? That is probably what Jaor is going to need early on to like get his primary defender off of him. And summer league is just not an environment where you’re going to scheme up a ton of structured offense for him. So, I don’t know how you feel, but I really wasn’t surprised by much of what I saw. No, I wasn’t too surprised about the position. I mean, look, I thought he’d be on the ball a little bit more than he was. fan, you know, but I talked to a lot of draft people after the draft who said he might profile more as a wing at the next level. And a lot of that was stemming from his, you know, lack of an elite handle, his lack of shake, his lack of strength, his ability to, you know, get defenders off of him and be comfortable initiating offense and handling the ball in the open court against, you know, really high level ball pressure. But like you said, kind of a takeaway that I came away with it. It has been a lot of a conversation of is he a wing, is he a point guard? And I said that I did expect to see a little bit more of them kind of trying to get him going downhill in sets off the wing, whether it be, you know, zoom actions or staggers or whatever you want to say like that. And I think that’s like you said with what the Nets did with CJ, I think they will do that with him a lot more at the next level. And I think there was a notable quote from um Spo Keith Smith had a you know talked to a couple of NBA co or a Nets coach and a front office executive and I think it was I don’t remember if it was the coach or the front office executive but they said what Jagor did at summer league is completely different from what we’re going to see him or ask him to do this season with the Nets. And I think some of that is stemming from them you know kind of putting him in different situations in different sets. and I would expect him to handle the ball a little more. But when you look at his limitations that you’ve seen, not just at summer league, but also, you know, as a ball handler in his college tape, he’s a guy I said doesn’t have a great handle. He’s pretty upright while he’s driling. That’s the thing. Yeah. While he’s trying to move downhill, he’s pretty upright. He doesn’t always look comfortable handling the ball. And I think that in terms of the hope that he’s going to be an offensive initiator and a true point guard or a self-creator, that gives me a little bit of pause because I just don’t really see some of the natural fluid ball handling ability and sort of kind of that twitch shake bend that you need to get some of these defenders off of you. Do you feel the same way there? I do. And you saw it like yes he’s a 69 point guard but also the NBA like the Magic put Noah Penda on him and he’s like a 69 610 wing. I mean he’s huge but these are the guys in the NBA and that Penda looks like a like a defensive end like tall that dude is enormous crazy. So there’s few guy I don’t know what they’re feeding him in in France when I saw Noah Sen for the Bulls ma like skinny but massive if that makes sense. Um, but Panda is like big and long and guarded Jaor and it wasn’t like, oh, they’re putting a wing on him. It’s like, no, this a very natural matchup and it was tough for Jaor in the perimeter. I wanted to I agree with all that and honestly that was more of a worry to me than the shooting because, you know, we can do wing point guard, but like you’re going to want him to have a 25 20% usage rate, right? and handle a lot of possessions regardless of if it’s on the wing or in the middle of the floor. What did you think about that quote in Keith Smith’s very thorough and like very sourced and impressive piece where they the Nets coach, the anonymous Nets coach says this will be very different. Like I I don’t really know if that’s possible or like if that makes sense. Like won’t he have to do both? He’ll have to take catch and shoots and dribble. like why are those mutually exclusive? The takeaway that I got with it, I was a little confused with it off the jump because I asked Steve Hzel the Net summer league coach after Jagor’s final game, why is he off the ball so much? Why aren’t we seeing him do more pick and roll stuff? Because that was his elite skill at BYU was the pick and roll playmaking. And Hzel said it wasn’t by design. It was something more within the flow of the game where yeah just didn’t really look comfortable holding the defenders off, handling in the open court, creating separation, initiating offense. So, by Hetszel’s admission, it was more something that Jagor just needs to improve on being able to do some of that stuff. The And like a lot of the pick and roll frequency, like the play type tracking, they just don’t go down as pick and rolls if if nothing happens off of them, you know, like if he dribbles off and then they reset. Sorry, what were you going to say? Yeah, I would say that I think maybe the difference from that Nets coach or front office executive, I don’t remember which one it was, saying that the role is going to be a lot different. that might be of some hope that he is going to improve and be able to do a little bit more ball handling throughout the season. And also, like we said before, I think there’s going to be more structure and we’re going to see him them kind of scheming things up for him like we said with Cam Johnson, whether it is the zoom actions, the pin downs, kind of creating some advantages for him and letting him work downhill and kind of having him come downhill with an advantage that is created through the offense and it’s not self-created because we see it in summer league. so much of the stuff has to be self-created because there just is so little structure. So I think that’s where I came away with it uh came away with that quote. But I also just do have a little bit pause, you know, from Jaor as in terms of what the ceiling is going to be because I said I think he’s going to have a role and it’s, you know, obviously with if he can continue to shoot the three he does, you said it, the size, the shooting, some ancillary ball handling and can survive on defense. That offers you a role long term. But the stealing, I think, is going to hinge on some of the things that we’re talking about that he hasn’t really shown up to this point as a ball handler. So, will he be able to do that? and will he be able to raise that ceiling to a level where he warrants where the Nets took him in the draft. We’ll talk about that after a quick break. But before that, want to tell you about our friends over at FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing and whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. 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Coming back from the break on today’s locked on Nets episode talking with Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily and we spent the majority of the first segment talking about Jory what we saw you know in his international tape and his college tape and then into summer league with his three performances with Brooklyn and we said that we think he’s going to have a role and of the three we’re most encouraged that he’s going to have a role at the next level due to his three-point shooting due to the size what he was able to show on defense and then also the ancillary skills as a playmaker and ball handler. But the Nets seem to be high on the ceiling. If you watched the last scout episode, they talked about him and they said that there were several guys in that front office that said they were believers in the upside because of a lot of things that he could do. And in my opinion, that’s fine. He’s going to have a role and that’s great. But when you take a guy with the eighth pick in the draft that a strength of a draft class like we just saw, you’re going to want him to have more than a role long term. Like you hope that goes without saying. You want him to be, you know, a highle player who has some upside and potential. And to me, a lot of that is going to hinge on Jagor’s ability to be able to handle the ball and be able to, you know, do some things at least as a subcreator and not a guy who’s completely reliant on being within the structure of the offense. So, based on what you’ve seen so far from him, where is your level of encouragement that he’s going to be able to be a guy who develops some subcreation chops and has a little bit of a bag where he can score for some different areas and create from others offscript? low, but not because of summer league. Just I don’t think summer league changed my opinion much. I’m hearing a lot about, you know, he’s gonna get in the weight room and that’s great and he needs to, but I don’t know if he’s going to like be a strengthbased creator. That doesn’t really seem like his game. Like we just talked about it on the last segment. It’s kind of the uprightness. It’s the lack of shift or bend or whatever you want to call it. And that to me is a inherent ceiling limiter. Now, if you get souped up Joe Engles, that’s a really good offensive player. But, you know, in terms of this upside swing, the ceiling, like I I’m still not quite there on it. Especially because I think all those questions also limit his defensive and like rebounding, you know, ability. He is not a great rebounder and some of the, you know, appeal there is getting rebounds and pushing, but I just don’t see the, you know, like available pathways to solving his problems as being ceiling raisers. Is that if that makes sense. So like yeah, he can get stronger. I don’t think a lack of strength is what’s holding him back from like true primary creation upside. Um, that being said, you get a good player with the eighth pick, the spot the Nets are in, this roster is going to look so different than it did last like from 20 from last season to like two, three years from now. What how many guys do you think are still going to be on the roster from last season, not including the rookies, like three, like two, three at most? Maybe. Yeah. Um, I mean I getting a good player would be good, but yeah. Yeah. And I get I get what you’re saying and I’m not saying that I’m saying he can’t have a role and I think he can be a good NBA player. Like if they get him and they get his three-point shooting to a level where he is a highle shooter off the catch, can do some things off the dribble, is a passable NBA defender, if not maybe a guy who has some plus upside and can do some things coming off of some, you know, actions where they create an advantage for him. Like that’s a very good NBA player. If we’re talking about a guy who has star upside, there needs to be some self-creation and ability to do some of the things off script. And I think what you said about the strength is interesting because they’re talking about him needing to get stronger. And I think that will definitely help him. But I saw kind of similar things that you saw on his tape at BYU where it wasn’t like he did have a lack of strength and maybe that led to him not trying but it was just never his natural like inclination to try to go through somebody’s chest and to try to create you know that force up towards the rim like and I know that I feel like because I watched a lot of his game tape and on the rare occasion that he did kind of get downhill and do like you know a shoulder bump discard and go for a layup I was like oh like wow Yeah. Where has that been? I mean, there’s stuff like he has really long stride length and you, you know, chest, shoulder, arms, like you can see him kind of bumping people off on the way to the rim. But, you know, let me just ask you, someone comes from the future and tells you, “Yo, Jager is like a top 25 player in the league, like substar all-star level impact.” Gun to your head, what is the closest approximation of what that looks like to you? Like, is it like Tyrese Hallebertton? Is that the best kind? Is that the is that the best comp for him? I comps are reductive, but you know. Yeah. No, I have heard that comp and that has come into my head just in terms of what’s the knock on Hallebertton a lot offensively. It is kind of the lack of self-creation, the lack of blowby. Like I think it’s a big reason why the NBA player has called him the most overrated player in the league because when you talk about what do NBA players look for in game film, it’s not what it’s not what Tyrese Hallebertton does which win with which uh with winning the possession battle routinely and doing all of those things. It’s who has the deepest bag, who has, you know, some of the best highlights and things along those lines. And that’s never been what Tyrese Hallebertton does. So, I I don’t hate that Hallebertton comp because if you look at how Hallebertton plays a lot of the time, he’s a guy who moves off, you know, moves the ball really quickly, gets it moving within the flow of the offense, has turned into a really good shooter off the dribble and also off the catch. The thing I’d say with Hallebertton is that he just seems a lot more natural as a ball handler, especially in the open court. But maybe Jagger can get there. Like, I’m not ruling that out. So, I don’t hate that comp because I do think there are similar limitations in terms of what they can do as creators. And if Jaor can get the three-point shooting up to that level, he seems to have a similar level of natural playmaking and passing field and just willingness to keep the ball moving within the flow of an offense. Yes. But I Yeah, I mean I I struggle. We’re also like we saw him shoot well in three games of summer league. It’s not a foregone conclusion that this guy is going to be a Tyrese Hallebertton level. If he doesn’t shoot, the role player thing even might be off the table. I mean, like, if this guy’s around the low 30s, honestly, mid like low 30s, no matter what the volume is, I hate to be super flipping, but you know, like, good luck. Um, no. And that’s why I came away, that’s why I think all of us, despite him showing so little as an onball guy, came away so encouraged with what he did at Summer League because he shot the way he did and looked comfortable from that regard. And it was like, okay, like at least we have this and if all else fails, like he should have an NBA role if he can continue to shoot at this level, but we’re going to want it to be better than that because we, you know, Nets fans, for better or worse, came into this draft with dreams of Cooper Flag, Dylan Harper. Now, I think you have to readjust expectations when you fall to the eighth pick, but still like that was the hope. So, we’re still, you know, the Nets fans were still hoping that it could be a star level guy. and Jagger is going to have to improve on some things that we really haven’t seen him do up to this point. And you know, I think you you brought up the Hallebertton comparison. If you look at his draft comps, I think Josh Giddy was a guy who was thrown around a lot. How do you feel about that comp? You know, I watched some of leading up to this podcast, I watched some of uh Giddy’s tape with the Adelaide 36ers and what he looked at in that season. And I’m just curious as you know, if you feel that that’s kind of like a lazy comp or if you feel like you see a lot of similarities there. somewhere in between. Like it’s a little lazy. Um I think Giddy was a better playmaking and passing prospect just in terms of like low like much better assist to turnover stuff. Less of a like your classic pro I think Jagor played like a very pro style offense at BYU and like high pick and roll. you’re going to initiate all these possessions and we’re going to do like almost like a spread offense, you know, and you think about NFL quarterbacks in a in a ready-made college system. And in that system, Jer had a lot of flaws that really worried people about his projection as a primary initiator. Giddy really was kind of I don’t want to say like a unicorn, but a you a much more unique like creation prospect. just they’re different builds and I think that is where the comparison kind of falls apart for me. Um Giddy just like much more compact. You could see kind of the almost like he’ll post you up. He’ll post up smaller guards and read the floor from there. So, I think the cell with Giddy was much more like, oh, there’s some creation and passing versatility and he really likes to get into the short mid-range and get to two feet and that can like slow down the floor for him. Whereas Jgo is like all threes are long strides to the rim. There’s not a lot in between. Yeah. And that’s that’s I don’t see it. That’s kind of where I came away. Like I understood the comp. Like it was they’re both guys who are around 6’8. They struggled shooting during their pre-draft season. They’re good playmakers. Yeah, they’re white. They’re both white. Um, but like you said, I think Giddy has a little bit more build to him. And I just watched Giddy’s tape and while I think that like nei like Giddy wasn’t super like didn’t have a ton of shake or wiggle either, but I saw a lot more creativity on what he did with Adelaide than what I saw with Jagor and BYU. And a lot of what Jaor did was a lot more, you know, high pick and roll and things along those lines. But when you watch Giddy, like you would see things where you’re seeing him cross over and get into the mid-range and work to a mid-range shot. You’re seeing him post up a guard and, you know, kind of hit a really nice drop step and get to the rim that way. And you weren’t really seeing those self-creation aspects of Jorgman’s game. I will say though, I am much more encouraged by Jory’s three-point stroke than what I saw from Josh Giddy with the Adelaide tape. I didn’t really like, you know, I’m not a shot doctor, but just from the mechanics aspect of it. And I just think that we saw I saw, you know, Jagger in his BYU tape, he took some pretty like audacious last season. So, he’s not a guy who lacks confidence and he thinks that he’s a good shooter. So, if you’re looking at the Giddy comp, like do you think if you like they’re not one to one players, but if you had Giddy who was a little bit better of a shooter and maybe you take away some of the self-creation stuff and Jagger can land there, like where do you think that that puts Jaor in the NBA conversation? I think probably somewhere maybe where Giddy is now. Maybe a little lower. Like, yeah, Giddy needs the the thing is Giddy needs the ball in his hands to be the best version of himself, but when Josh Giddy has the ball in his hands all the time, your ceiling as a team is probably capped a little bit. So, I think the cell there is like Jagger probably won’t have the ball in his hands as much, but is like very versatile with different lineups, which I think is really the cell. Like can be your primary ball handler in lineups where there’s some more wings and bigs that can do stuff, but also he can slide a little bit more to the wing when you have a guy like Nolan Trayor. Um, but like if that everything goes right and that that giddy-esque sort of progression comes along, like that is a really good suballstar, but like probably top 50 60 guy that is just like, oh, of course he’s a high minutes player on a top five offense in the NBA that’s going to make a a bit um a deep playoff run. like, yeah, the shooting, the playmaking, you know, he’s getting layups to the rolling big who helps insulate him on defense. Like, if that all works out, it’s like, oh, like of course this guy’s a top six guy on a really, really good team that leans offensive that is offensively slanted. So, that’s a really good player. Yeah. And that’s why the comp with Giddy, you know, I definitely don’t think it’s a onetoone comparison, but what you said about, you know, Giddy’s this guy who needs the ball in his hands, and if he has the ball in his hands, what are you? you’re where the Chicago Bulls are, which is where a position that nobody really wants to be in. So that’s why I could kind of see a vision with Yman from that regard of if you have a guy who’s giddy size, has Giddy’s playmaking, maybe isn’t the same level of self-creator and things along those lines and creativity, you know, as a scorer, is a good three-point shooter and can play on and off the ball. I think that that maybe is a player who’s not as flashy as Giddy, but maybe has some more utility and can fit in locations in some different ways, which I think is ultimately much more attractive to an NBA front office. So, from I am encouraged by what Jaor showed. I think the shooting was really nice to see and we heard that the, you know, we heard the Nets front office amid all the concerns. We heard Jordy, we heard Shawn all come in and say, you know, not we we think he’s going to be a good show good shooter. We hope he’s going to be a good shooter. They said he’s going to be a good shooter. And we were all like, okay, whoa. And then it comes out and he shoots like that at summer league. So, if he can continue that, if he can add a little bit of muscle, if he can reframe kind of the way maybe he approaches using his size, I think that there is all aspects of a really encouraging player there. And hey, it’s a lot of ifs, but ultimately there’s going to be ifs with any prospect, so we’ll see. But I think there is a baseline of encouraging things that we can talk about with Jory moving forward. Going to have a quick break now. We come back. We got two other guards in Nolan Troy and Ben Stoop that we saw play at summer league. How did they fare? How could we set them see them fitting into the Net’s long-term plans? All that after a quick break. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode. Talking about the Nets draft picks and specifically their three international ball handlers. We just touched on length at Jory. We still got Nolan Troy and Ben Saraf to talk about what we saw from them at summer league. I think it sounds like based on what you said at the top of the show that Troy was the next guy that you were most encouraged by. So, what have you seen on his tape leading up to the draft and those three performances at summer league? Just what do you like about what you saw from him? Yeah, I like that he seems like he could at 19 years old grow into being grow into being an NBA ready or an NBA caliber sizewise, handling wise and speedwise. Like just a force at the point of attack on both ends of the floor, I think is the cell for Nolan. And his catch and shoe numbers, like it doesn’t look great, but they were fine in France. like he really just couldn’t make an off the dribble jump shot which he was up near 40% for a lot of the season on catch and shoot threes. So yeah like one and a half two a game but like you know made him um that like yeah he’s going to have some trouble like when guys go under screens against him at the point of attack. But the cell is this dude is so explosive and can refine the ball handling and craft to a point where like he’s getting to the paint anyway and then he’s long and disruptive at the other end while making some you know backline rotations like pretty good in health. You know he is has like a 69 wingspan or whatever it is. uh there is a very clear pathway to being good and I know he didn’t shoot very well in summer league but it doesn’t really matter honestly historically so I’m encouraged by it. Yeah, and I’d say it’s just the translatable NBA skills, as you said, that we saw from him at summer league. And I think we all heard about his speed, him being one of the fastest north south players in the draft, if not the fastest, his ability to turn the corner, um, you know, going around these big men on these pick and rolls, but you really saw it. Like there were a few plays during this summer league tape where Troy has the ball and he decides to just put that foot in the ground and go. and the acceleration is really just, you know, blaring and eye opening. So, his ability to get in the paint, I mean, he was getting downhill and getting into the paint really whatever he want whenever he wanted. And when you have, you know, he didn’t shoot, I think like he was a pretty good finisher in France. I think he shot like 57% on layups, which, you know, for a guy his size, not bad. We saw some crafty finishes, even though he struggled somewhat at summer league. Like, we did see flashes of the crafty finishes. He also, you know, has that playmaking ability obviously. So, when you couple that with, you know, the defensive pesy peskiness that I think we saw from him, I think that that is a guy you’re encouraged about having at the 19th pick in the draft. Obviously, the shooting and the pull-up shooting is going to be a major concern. Obviously, from three, because I think we did see some defenders sagging off of him, you know, as the games progressed in summer league. And I think we saw not really a ton of, you know, comfort working into the mid-range if he is running pick and roll, you know, getting into the those mid-range spots and pulling up. He really just wasn’t a good pull-up jump shooter um at any level in France. So, you know, where are you at with the shooting and how do you feel about how he could potentially develop there? And if that is able to get to a respectable level, you know, what kind of level of player are we looking at with Shore? Because there is so much to like outside of that. I just need to see all the other stuff first on an NBA court because if that stuff isn’t really good, then I won’t care if he’s an average shooter. Like what the best case projection for him is average shooter for a guard, right? Like, oh, pretty decent on off the ball, like can occasionally make some, you know, pull-ups enough to keep guys honest at the very least when guys go under screens. That would be a good outcome for his shooting, I think. I think it’d be one that the Nets are happy with, but that won’t really matter, right? Unless all the other stuff really works out. So, with him, I’m more like willing to put the shooting on the back burner for now. And I really want to see him try to get to the paint, how it looks against NBA athletes in in year one where he won’t have the requisite strength or the strength that he’ll have in two years. he won’t hopefully have some of the craft that he will have, you know, like everything in summer league was like one foot race to the rim like 100% maybe let’s see some of the you know putting guys in jail like Del giving guys a shoulder bump that stuff. Um, but we’re going to learn a lot about him this first year if he plays real minutes. Just how he comports himself. Like one of the the big cell for him as a ball handler is not just the physical gifts, but his brain and how he can map the floor. If we see him use all of these gifts to be bad in October, November, December, but show real improvements by March, April, I’ll be like, you know what, this is a player I want to I’m glad that the Nets are investing in. Now, we can worry about the shooting. So, I think generally speaking, that’s where I’m at with him. Yeah. So, you know, closing it out on Troy, I think the speed, the measurables, I think all of that, like he just looks like an NBA player out there in terms how he’s moving. Like, he’s a guy who is elite, you know, in terms of being in terms of his speed with the ball in his hands in the half court and in transition. And then you look at the measurables, he’s a guy who’s playing at like 6’4, has a 68 wingspan. He’s agile and things along those lines. So, if you couple that with some of the instincts I do think he has as a passer and all of that stuff, I think you just have a lot of traits in a guy who looks the part of an NBA player and if the shooting can come along and some of the other, you know, feel and things along those lines can come along, you have potential for him to really pop there. You said, you know, the craft, the bump, the kind of all those different things we haven’t seen from Troy. We’re going to see if he can develop that. The Net’s last guard, Ben Saraf, we saw some of that from and there were, you know, obviously a lot of other shortcomings, but I was pretty intrigued with what we saw from Saraf at summer league because he’s a crafty dude. He has a bag already at 19 years old. He has all of that at 6’7 and, you know, a little bit more bulk to him than uh Domen and Troy. So, he was a guy who also got downhill a lot. He’s a guy who is a playmaker. He’s a guy who I think we saw be willing to be physical at the rim and as a driver. So, there were some encouraging things there. The jump shot just looked he was unwilling, frankly, as a jump shooter and he didn’t look comfortable when he did do it. But, he’s another interesting player. Like I think a lot of Nets fans were angry with this pick because they took the first two international point guards and then you look and there’s guys like you know Rashir Fleming and Hugo Gonzalez and the Duther and whatever like wings you want to say you think would complement these guys better but they went with Saraf I guess another little bit of an upside swing. Where have you landed on that? And do you share my encouragement with what you saw from him at summer league? Yeah, I posted a clip and I wrote about it today, a couple clips. He has real swag to him. As Damen Lillard said about Yang Hansen in place of an exploive, he has some swag to him as a ball handler. Like I really liked when he would get physical on his drives like yeah, get off me, elbow, shoulder, whatever. Um, I think he’s also the most polished driver of all these guys. He, again, not super explosive, not really bendy, but just seems to have a really good sense of like defenders momentum. That gives you encouragement about um the lack of shooting. Like he can bait guys into going over a screen. It seems like he’ll be able to use screens to find the most optimal driving angle. He can he loves the spin move, but then he can spin and jump off two feet or he can spin into a deceleration. I I’m encouraged by the driving and this dude is 67. Like I think he’ll be able to see the court. That being said, there are major questions about pretty much everything else. Yeah, I I knew that you would I saw you post the one clip and I remember seeing it during the game and Troy’s top I mean not Troy Saraf’s top move is he has a really nice crossover going from his left to his right. Yeah. Then he wants to get back to his left and he he spins back. And there was one move that he you posted a video of, but when I saw it, I was like, “Wow, Kaplan’s gonna love that.” It was the crossover to his right spin and coming off of a really fast spin move into like a really quick del right foot, got the defender in the air. And I thought that that was a good play just to exemplify the craftiness because it’s a way that he creates an advantage going one way, going to his right, uses a defender’s momentum against himself to spin left and then in a split second sees the help defender coming and makes a decision, I’m going to del balance also and draws a foul. I honestly don’t like the D’Angelo Russell comp anymore after watching him. Like I don’t think it makes a lot of sense, right? like DLO touch God on all those floaters and pull-ups and then just like an insanely gifted kind of processor in terms of seeing advantages throwing like lead passes. Sarov seems like I’m like trying to get downhill in any way I can and bump you off me and hit you with these moves, but also I probably can’t shoot. Yeah. And it’s interesting because we’ve talked to like we talked to Jaor. I asked him like what NBA players does he like watching and modeling his game after and he also talked about it on the NBA TV broadcast during the last summer league game and he’s brought up Luca um which I guess like I understand like wanting to play like Luca but you see Saraf and some of the moves he pulls and the bulk that he has and he can’t shoot obviously so like in no way am I comparing Sarra to Luca Donic and like the outcome but I’m just saying that he has some of that craft some of that bulk some of that ability to get guys off balance and use their momentum against him. And that’s the selfcreation that we’re hoping to see Jaor develop one day. Sarra has it right now in that ability. I think that the shooting is a much more of a major concern than it is with Jaor and ultimately that might be you know if that doesn’t come along like he’s not going to have a role. That’s why I think we’re more we’re more encouraged by what we saw from Jaor. But in terms of, you know, just Saraf, another guy who there’s gonna be a question of is he a wing or is he a point guard or what position is he gonna play? You like, how could you see him fitting in long term? And do you have, you know, in conjunction with that, do you have any encouragement about the jump shooting? It’s tough to tell so early, but his form looked a little bit funkier to me. He has the high release point. Just coming out of his hand, it didn’t look as clean as the other two guys in my opinion. Yeah, I agree. And again, it’s so early and he could obviously get a lot better. I think the encouraging, you know, I think the optimal route for him is obviously getting better as a jump shooter, but just seems like a guy with enough both like toughness, craft, and awareness as a ball handler to organize an offense to be able to get downhill when necessary to push pace in transition with hit ahead passes and, you know, step up ball screens getting into the lane and like finding guys. I think ideally he’s a guy that is, you know, 10 points a night, but like six assists and five rebounds. Like that’s seems like a good stat line for him. I know that’s not a super descriptive um analysis, but just a guy who wants to drive to pass and then if it’s one-on-one, if he has a smaller guard on him, I trust him to get all the way to the rim, but I don’t necessarily think he’ll have to shoot really well to be able to come into a game and just apply some pressure. like I could see him in a couple years, you know, you’re down 10 in the first quarter. This guy comes in, leads a very feisty bench offense to some free throws, some layups, some threes, and you’re like right back in the game. That’s kind of how I envision him, you know, a mediumish term like good outcome for him. Yeah. And that’s why I wasn’t that angry with the pick. Like I know a lot of people thought it was a little bit redundant, but after seeing, you know, watching some of his tape with Ratzio Far and then watching what he did in the summer league, you’re talking about a guy who is a legit 6’7 ball handler who has these abilities to, you know, create advantages and get downhill and has a little bit of craft to his game and h, you know, I don’t think looks overmatched as an athlete, you know, out there, at least from what we saw in summer league. So, if you have all of those qualities and then it’s a bet, you know, if the three-point shooting can come along, that’s somebody who could really hit in a big way. Now, that’s a huge if. It’s probably not likely, but I understand at the 26th pick in the draft taking a swing like that. Like, it makes sense to me. And, you know, while it might be redundant, a lot of Nets fans were just, you know, talking about them taking BPA and looking for upside and all that. And that might have changed once they decided they were going to make all five of their first round picks. Maybe that would have changed how some Nets fans were looking at it, but I understand for a team who’s so devout of young talent, taking another dart throw on a guy who could really hit in a big way. So, I like the pick. I think there were encouraging aspects of what we saw from all those guys. I think we did a good job touching on it. Lucas, I appreciate you taking taking the time as always and we’re going to have a lot more Nets talk coming up and I’m sure that you know you will be back on. You’ve been a frequent flyer and uh we hope to continue that moving forward. Awesome. I appreciate it. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys enjoyed the chat with Lucas touching on all the Nets rookie ball handlers, their strengths, their weaknesses, and what we expect from them in the league long term. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, be sure to smash that like button. Leave a comment. Let me know what you thought about the Nets rookie ball handlers. Who are you who are you the most encouraged by? Who would you like to see improve moving forward? We got a lot more Nets offseason action coming along and I’ll have talk on all of that when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan discuss Brooklyn Nets rookie point guards Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, and Ben Saraf. They delve into the trio’s performance at the NBA Summer League, analyzing which draft pick has the potential to turn into a home run selection.

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