Tuesday September 23 is yet another gorgeous day in New York City, over 70 degrees with nary a cloud in the sky.
Alas, we at NetsDaily are tucked away inside the HSS Training Center fortress, as the Brooklyn Nets open training camp with Media Day. It’s an all-day affair, with General Manager Sean Marks and Head Coach Jordi Fernández speaking at 10:00 a.m. ET, followed by much of the roster. We will be updating this article with any news and pertinent quotes that come out of the day.
Sean Marks and Jordi Fernández speak
Sean Marks handled most of the questions in the early session, with Jordi Fernández in a supporting role, and the main topic of conversation was clear: Cam Thomas. However, he did break one surprising piece of injury-related news, and we’ll start with that.
Egor Dëmin has a torn plantar fascia
In the middle of a response to a question about #8 overall draft pick Egor Dëmin, like a sudden ‘bless you’ when a passerby sneezes, Sean Marks revealed that Dëmin tore his plantar fascia following Las Vegas Summer League.
“He’s been a little bit limited with a plantar fascia tear after summer league. So he’s been, hasn’t potentially had the summer that he would have loved.”
Answering a follow-up, Marks added more context: “He’ll be limited for the first part of camp, with what he’s going to be doing, but hopefully there’s a build up through the first couple of weeks here, and then he gets out there. But we have no issues with thinking he’s going to miss, you know, the start of the season.”
It’s unclear, yet, which foot Dëmin is dealing with. Even if the Nets don’t expect the Russian teenager to miss the start of the season, it’s not exactly an auspicious start to his career. (Un)fortunately for him, he can look across the locker room to his fellow rookie, #22 overall draft pick Drake Powell, and commiserate.
Powell is dealing with left knee tendinopathy, the same issue that caused him to miss Las Vegas Summer League. On Tuesday morning, Marks gave a status update: “He’s not playing five-on-five as it stands now. But the hope is that he’ll be in camp and doing drills and so forth. He didn’t participate in open gym, then under those guides, but at the same time, you know, we have no issues with him being held out of camp and so forth. And we’ll build him up through there and he should be good to go for, hopefully, the preseason games.”
Here was the main event. Less than three weeks have passed since Cam Thomas ended his restricted free agency limbo by accepting the qualifying offer of one-year, $6 million, setting him up for unrestricted free agency in 2026.
Jordi Fernández gave the first answer, discussing his conversations with CT this summer: “My conversations with him have been about his preparation over the summer. Addressing things based on his development. You know, obviously Sean can address the contract situation, but the way that we always focus is, how can we develop a player?”
Fernández added that he felt Thomas made impressive physical strides this summer, a nugget Marks also dropped when discussing the contract situation: “It’s part of the business — maybe the ugly part of the business — when you can’t find a common ground. But at the same time, how he’s developed and the hours that he’s put in the gym, not only here but on his own, speaks volumes.”
Marks then stressed that Thomas accepting the qualifying offer does NOT mean the 2021 first-round pick already has one foot out the door: “Both sides understand what’s at stake, but I also don’t want to jump to conclusions. Just because a common ground couldn’t be met this summer doesn’t mean, you know, he’s not a Net in the future or throughout the season.”
Brooklyn’s decision-makers did not take Media Day as an opportunity to air any dirty laundry. Whether Thomas is on the same page is, at the moment, unclear, but Brooklyn brass does not seem ready to give up on Thomas just yet. (Edit: scroll down one section for Thomas’ comments. He did not give the quote-vultures much to work with.)
Said Marks: “His side is gonna see it from one side, and look out for the best interests of Cam, and we’re gonna look out from the best interests of the organization, and flexibility, and moving forward, and so forth. You know, I think it was handled behind closed doors and in a very mature manner from from both sides, very upfront, very honest, very transparent. I think he has a chip on his shoulder, like he always has. That’s the way he plays. So we expect nothing else for him to go out there and compete.”
Lastly, the Brooklyn Nets GM rebuffed the notion that Thomas does not fit into the team’s on-court future, which, after the 2025 NBA Draft, seems to skew heavily toward quick-decision makers and more-than-willing passers: “I think what you’ve seen from Cam over the course of the last year under under Jordi and the coaching staff here: You’ve seen him try and adapt and try and change his game. I mean, we know what he’s elite at. He’s an elite scorer. We don’t want to take any of that away from him. He knows that he’s going to work on all facets of his game, but he’s a leader with what he does, and we don’t want to take that away. And to be quite frank, I think he does fit with guys that end up moving the ball and have positional size.”
Michael Porter Jr. has had quite the summer. He was traded from the only NBA franchise he ever called home, where he even won a championship, and to celebrate his arrival in Brooklyn, he embarked on quite the media tour. Porter Jr. has never shied away from the public eye, between his own vlog guest appearances, but he ramped up both in the summer of 2025.
This did not come without controversy, with Porter Jr. telling the world he plays Andrew Tate clips for women he may be romantically interested in, and that having a gay son would hurt his heart. Many observers, including us here at NetsDaily, suggested he probably should have kept these comments to himself. I asked Sean Marks how Brooklyn handled MPJ’s public appearances this summer, and if direct conversations were had.
“Those conversations that myself and a group have had with with Michael will remain internal. I think this is, as Jordi alluded to, a new environment for him, a new market, new expectations, new roles, both on the court and in the locker room for him. So I think he’s, one, finding his way. I think, you know, we’ll just basically leave it at that. But I mean, he knows where the organization stands on certain issues and topics, and you know, this market is a little different than where he was.”
Marks was never going to publicly condemn MPJ or address anything he said specifically. However, it felt like a clear signal that the organization doesn’t exactly condone his comments either. As for the basketball expectations for MPJ, perhaps in an expanded offensive role, Fernández took that one.
“It’s going to be a new job for him. And at the end of the day, everybody’s got a job for the group, and it’s a job that, if we all do our jobs, we’ll be successful as a group … The good thing is, I have a previous relationship with him, so that’s makes it a little easier for me, but I’m going to ask him to do things that he’s never done before, and for those reasons, and I think that he’s up for the challenge once again. It’s not going to be given to him. It’s not a starting spot is not given to him. Minutes are not given to him or anybody else.”
Cam Thomas responds, kind of
Cam Thomas walked up to the podium at Media Day, and a hushed excitement befell the room. Would he torch the organization that refused to pay him what he felt he was worth? What one-liner would he drop to ignite national media attention? Thomas was far from the first player to speak, so anticipation built throughout the day: What will he say?
Nothing, apparently. CT took his seat at the podium with his characteristically sly smile. By now, about to turn 24 years old and entering his fifth NBA season, he knows what you want him to say. But it’s not happening.
Asked about his reasoning in accepting the qualifying offer, Thomas said: “I’d rather control my situation as a player. That’s the type of control you want in your situation. So I just wanted to keep that aspect of it and just it doesn’t really matter what the conversations were. I’m just here to play my game.”
He was then asked if accepting the QO dampened his enthusiasm to play for Brooklyn this season: “You know, it’s the business aspect. It’s tough, but at the end, I’m just happy to be back, happy playing in front of everybody again. So, definitely happy to be here. Ready to go.”
Repeatedly, Cam Thomas mentioned that he took “nothing personal” during restricted free agency negotiations, solely that he was looking forward to helping the Nets win in 2025-26. He brushed off his now-famous response to a (poorly aggregated) Zach Lowe comment…
…by calling it simple offseason chatter: “I didn’t really put too much into it. But at the same time, you know, it gets frustrating, whether you want to admit or not, that people keep trying to spread these narratives and lies about you that just isn’t true, and without actually looking at the facts and watching our games.”
The main Cam Thomas story of the day is that there was no story. He pledged allegiance to the new way of business here in Brooklyn, namely playing fast and shooting a lot of threes, like every NBA team pledges to do at Media Day. Whatever worry there is that Thomas will destabilize the rebuild as a result of contract-related unhappiness, perhaps through lackadaisical effort or controversial comments to the press, it will have to wait until at least the regular season.
Said one league source: Cam knows that he has to change the perspective of around the league.
Michael Porter Jr., a great quote
That’s the thing about Michael Porter Jr. He is the overwhelming favorite to be the best quote on the 2025-26 Nets, and not just because he might say something incendiary. As he did in Denver, he answered every question on Tuesday with extreme care, including one that pressed him on his very vocal offseason.
“Social media is not a big part of my life,” he said. “Like, I think for me, basketball has been such a focal point of my entire life, and I think I never really was a guy that had tons of hobbies off the court. So for me, some of the social media stuff and things this summer was a little bit of just a hobby. But during the season, I’m always — basketball for me, my entire life, has been my focus and my where my attention goes to.”
To that end, MPJ reaffirmed Brooklyn fans that he has spent his summer preparing for a new role, where he will be asked to carry a higher offensive load than he did as a Denver Nugget. Jordi Fernández, who was an assistant in Denver for the first three seasons of his career, is a familiar face that Porter Jr. finds comfort in, but the work is still his burden.
“So in Denver, although I would still explore my game and work on different things, I wasn’t spending a lot of times in my workouts coming off of pick-and-roll and hitting the pocket, or doing different things like that. And over here, I mean, a lot of the attention to my workouts is of those things that I’ll be doing different here.”
Though he mentioned being a huge WNBA fan — even name-dropping fellow Missouri native and noted opinion-haver Sophie Cunningham — Porter Jr.’s presser came and went without much shock and awe. And yet, he delivered more substance than nearly any other Net who took the podium on Tuesday. This should be a preview of his season, and purely as a vocal veteran and locker-room leader, it’s easy to see why the Nets felt comfortable trading for him. (I don’t think his teammates will care about the Andrew Tate stuff as much as you or I may hope.)
In fact, Porter Jr. had some glowing reviews of his young teammates, adding that professional experience overseas is always a plus: “When you first get to the NBA, it takes a little minute to not look at these superstars as you did when you were growing up watching them. Like, it took me a little minute to now look at kD or LeBron or Steph as peers. It takes a little while. I think overseas players, it’s a little different, because they’ve been playing professional so long.”
Then, he took the time to shout out the #26 overall pick: “And I even noticed it in Ben [Saraf]. You know, talking to coaches about Ben, just just how he is in open gym, just how impressive he’s been to me.“ I think he’s 19, 20 years old, and just his level of, like, professionalism, just walking around is well beyond his years.”
Indeed, the one rookie garnering the most positive buzz inside HSS Training Center is Ben Saraf, June’s #26 overall pick.
Nic Claxton quickly explained why that was the case: “It’s feel for the game. Like I said, that’s the reason I’m excited for the year. Like, just us having a lot of dudes, I feel like they’re experienced because they played professionally, and just being able to help them continue to refine their games.”
Though there were individual compliments — Drew Timme, suddenly a veteran, had much praised for the funhouse mirror version of himself, Danny Wolf — much of the excitement around the rookies covered the whole class, like Nic Claxton did. It’s not one star talent or even two, like the New Orleans Pelicans’ Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen, but five potentially solid contributors, most of whom love to pass the ball.
Unfortunately, two of them are sidelined with injury. On his plantar fascia injury, Egor Dëmin did not seem too worried: “I’m assuming it’s not that big of a deal at this point. But it’s something that comes with the volume and time. So it wasn’t like a moment when I’m like, ‘okay, that’s when it happened.’”
Drake Powell was unsurprisingly not worried about his condition, knee tendinopathy, either: “My knee has been doing good. I’ve been sticking with the program that my strength and conditioning staff has given me and just continuing to build each day, come in with the right mindset, and just stay level-headed and continue to grow from that.”
Indeed, the rooks are already media-trained.
Danny Wolf is excited to keep working on his game, as is Ben Saraf. Their veteran teammates have been very helpful, so on and so forth. All the guards are eager to play either on or off the ball, whatever Jordi Fernández asks them to do. The rookies did not give the least interesting pressers of the four-hour ordeal, but they didn’t exactly drop any must-read quotes either. The real excitement will come, of course, when the games start.
“Great. Thanks for asking,” said Nic Claxton, with a smile, when asked about his back. He also said his main focus this year is to be a better, more consistent leader and teammate after getting ejected from three games last season.Terance Mann notices that Brooklyn has changed quite a bit from when he was growing up here: “Yeah! I talk about it every day, actually, Just driving around Park Slope area, Kensington area, all the new builds, you know, people looking different. Just a whole different vibe. I was walking around downtown Brooklyn when Barclays wasn’t even there. So, just different. The Modell’s is now Brooklyn Basketball Training Center. I used to buy my soccer gear there. So just weird, weird, but it’s cool.”Noah Clowney also has people talking. Jordi Fernández said, unprompted, that his third-year big looks like “a man” in reference to some bulking. Clowney weighed in at 234 this training camp after playing last year between 220-225, and his main area of focus is on getting to the rim and finishing more efficiently there.Tired of hearing “get one percent better every day”? Well too bad. That motto is back in full swing for the 2025-26 Brooklyn Nets, and it was used by just about every player at Tuesday’s media day.
Four hours and 14 interviews later, 2025 Brooklyn Nets Media Day is over. Training camp starts bright and early on Wednesday morning. We are finally, in some small sense, back. I’m glad to be bringing you coverage all season long.