Around this time last year, there was an abundance of talk about the Brooklyn Nets trading Mikal Bridges for “a bunch of middle schoolers.” Dariq Whitehead, Drew Timme, and Tyson Etienne recently spent some time bettering the Brooklyn community, and just maybe scouting for those picks in the process.

Last week, the three Nets made a surprise appearance at a Brooklyn Basketball Camp at Hellenic Classical Charter School near Park Slope. Each spent time chatting with the youth in attendance, answering questions, giving advice, and cheering everyone on.

“Being able to be in the community, with the kids, being in Brooklyn, I think it’s special,” said Etienne. “To be able to contact those kids and let them know that we’re an arms reach away, to inspire them. Maybe it’s somebody here one day that might play on the Brooklyn Nets, you never know. But I think us being able to come in here and talk to them, talk about the game, I think that’s really important, and I’m just glad to be a part of it, especially with my dog Drew.”

”It’s always good seeing kids getting to play basketball,” Timme added. “It’s a game that brought us so much joy, and to see that joy with them, and to see how happy that we can make them just by showing up for a little bit, it’s super rewarding and it reminds you why we work as hard as we do.”

Both Timme and Etienne suited up for Brooklyn in Las Vegas this year. However, this is the first we’ve heard from Whitehead in some time. Despite wanting to play in the tournament, his agent and Sean Marks agreed he should sit out to ensure he’s at full health going into the 2025-26 campaign.

“I feel like it’s everything that I didn’t have growing up…for them to want to play basketball and be in this profession, to have a guy who’s an NBA player here, for them to ask me any question they want, there’s no limitations to the questions they can ask me, I feel like that will help them a long way,” Whitehead said.

With an abundance of new competition on the roster following a historic draft which saw the Nets add five rookies via the first round, the upcoming season feels like a pivotal one for Whitehead, who dealt with a series of lower body injuries during his rookie and sophomore years. He’s appeared in a collective 22 games in two years, but has shot 42.9% from three on 3.5 attempts per game in said appearances.

The same can also be said of Etienne and Timme, arguably to a greater extent. Each are on non-guaranteed deals, with Etienne holding one of the team’s three two-way slots. Another is held by Tosan Evbuomwan, while the final one remains up for grabs.

On the topic of contracts, Ricky Council IV and Fanbo technically remain unsigned. While it’s been reported that the Nets intend to each, official announcements are still pending, although they should be announced this week.

There’s surely more to come on the youth basketball front for Brooklyn as well. Roughly two months ago, BSE Global announced the launch of its youth hoops facility in the abandoned Modell’s store across from Barclays Center, set to open this fall. The 18,600-square foot training facility will include two full courts and a half court, a “‘shooting lab’ half court, auxiliary baskets, multi-purpose court flooring for other events, “cutting-edge technology,” and “expert.”