{"id":738231,"date":"2026-05-19T06:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/738231\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T06:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T06:54:18","slug":"nets-draft-notes-brown-acuff-burries-flemings-wagler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/738231\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets Draft Notes: Brown, Acuff, Burries, Flemings, Wagler"},"content":{"rendered":"

After finishing with the third-worst record in the NBA in 2025\/26, Brooklyn fell in the draft lottery for the second straight year, dropping from No. 3 to No. 6. Assuming they don\u2019t trade up to select a consensus top-four prospect, the Nets will likely be left choosing between a talented group of freshman guards, writes C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of the five-player group, which features Darius Acuff<\/a>, Mikel Brown<\/a>, Kingston Flemings<\/a>, Brayden Burries<\/a> and Keaton Wagler<\/a>, Holmes believes Brown could be the \u201ccleanest all-around fit\u201d for the Nets based on his his measurements, athletic testing, and results in shooting drills at the draft combine.<\/p>\n

As Holmes notes, Brown had both the top standing reach (8\u20194.5\u2033) and longest wingspan (6\u20197.5\u2033) of the group and is an explosive athlete too. The Nets\u2019 front office has long prioritized \u201csize and versatility,\u201d which Brown could provide as a guard who can play both on and off the ball.<\/p>\n

Still, all the players bring their own strengths to the table, Holmes writes. Acuff was the most polished offensive player in college; Flemings tested like the best all-around athlete; Burries is a little bigger\/stronger and was a two-way contributor at Arizona; and Wagler is the tallest of the group and led Illinois to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Nets\u2019 guard options at No. 6:<\/p>\n

In a similar story for The New York Post (subscriber link<\/a>), Brian Lewis shares his combine takeaways for Acuff, Brown, Flemings and Wagler. Acuff was one of the \u201cbig winners\u201d in the early portion of the event, according to Lewis, as he came in bigger than expected (6\u20192\u2033 with a 6\u20197\u2033 wingspan) while being one of the top performers in shooting drills.
\nAsked at the combine what role he envisions for himself in the NBA, Acuff didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cDefinitely a superstar point guard for sure,\u201d Acuff said, according to Lewis<\/a>. \u201cBring a lot of excitement to any city I go to, and just bring a lot of excitement straight from day one.\u201d When asked how he defined a \u201csuperstar point guard,\u201d the Arkansas guard replied, \u201cA lot of accolades, just being on a winning team, it starts with the point guard. So any city I go to, I just want to win.\u201d Lewis hears the Kings, who control the seventh pick, are fans of Acuff \u2014 general manager Scott Perry coached Acuff\u2019s father (Darius Sr.) at Eastern Kentucky. As productive as he was offensively \u2014 and he had an incredible year statistically \u2014 there are major questions about Acuff\u2019s \u201cporous defense,\u201d Lewis adds.
\nAs Lewis details in another article<\/a> (subscription required), Brown may have the most upside of the five guards but he also might be the least polished. \u201cIt would be a great opportunity right there,\u201d Brown said of potentially being drafted by the Nets. \u201cJust continuing to build relationships with them as the time goes on and continue to talk to my family and my circle and my agent and the people behind me. It\u2019s something that we\u2019re definitely interested in, and looking forward to building a relationship with [the Nets].\u201d Brown, who said he thinks play-making is his top skill, acknowledged some teams have questions about his shot selection and defensive effort, but he believes he \u201ccould be a really good two-way player in this league.\u201d Both Acuff and Brown confirmed to the Post that they\u2019ve talked to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After finishing with the third-worst record in the NBA in 2025\/26, Brooklyn fell in the draft lottery for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,52247,670,247,3803,27226,42824,53476,29026,6,671],"class_list":["post-738231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brayden-burries","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-darius-acuff","tag-keaton-wagler","tag-kingston-flemings","tag-mikel-brown-jr","tag-nba","tag-nets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116599931733232132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}