The Brooklyn Nets are in Chicago with the rest of the NBA for the 2025 NBA Draft Combine as they seek to figure out which players will be on their board. The Combine is the time of the league calendar to see tomorrow’s stars in person and along the way, Brooklyn has already met with one of the players that they could be considering with the eighth overall pick.
Per ClutchPoint’s Erik Slater on Wednesday, the Nets met with Duke forward Kon Knueppel at the Combine with Knueppel himself saying that he will be traveling to Brooklyn for a predraft workout in the near future. Brooklyn had already begun predraft workouts prior to the NBA Draft Lottery on Monday and these evaluations will only ramp up as the NBA gets closer to the Draft on June 25.
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In addition to Knueppel, the Nets have met with Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears, another player that the franchise could be considering if he falls enough in the Draft for Brooklyn to be able to select him. Similar to Fears, Knueppel is a player that could be taken in the top-10, but seems to be closer to 10 than five, putting him firmly in the range for the Nets as a possible backup plan if Fears is off the board.
Knueppel, who wasn’t able to participate earlier this week in the athletic testing or shooting drills part of the Combine due to an ankle injury, per ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, is a player who is looking to make an impact from Day 1 as he has studied film of Dallas Mavericks forward Klay Thompson and Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler. Knueppel, who presumptive first overall pick and Duke teammate Cooper Flagg says is “such a safe pick,” could be someone that the Nets should be looking for.
“Knueppel should look like the ultimate plug-and-play wing for teams that miss out on some of the higher-level creators,” Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Wasserman wrote in his latest mock draft. It also doesn’t hurt that Wasserman compares Knueppel to current Nets forward Cam Johnson, who is the prime example of a player that can impact the game with his shooting with the possibility of developing into more down the road.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: 2025 NBA Draft: Nets met with Duke’s Kon Knueppel; workout soon