{"id":770980,"date":"2026-06-26T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/770980\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T10:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:18:19","slug":"nets-first-rounder-joshua-jefferson-believes-brooklyn-is-where-he-needs-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/770980\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets’ first-rounder Joshua Jefferson believes Brooklyn is where he ‘needs to be’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julius Randle and Mikel Brown Jr. have gotten all the Nets attention this week. But they traded for a first-round pick with an eye on Joshua Jefferson and landed the skilled forward who says Brooklyn is exactly where he\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really good feedback, from the late first round, from all the front office, just seeing what they need for their team,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cThey felt that I fit in a lot of spots because of my versatility. I\u2019m where I need to be. The Nets took a great chance on me, and I\u2019m very thankful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

To some, the Nets took a gamble on Jefferson, an older prospect with presumably limited upside, coming off a left ankle sprain that cut short his NCAA Tournament and Iowa State\u2019s title hopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen that injury happened, I feel like a lot of things [were] jeopardized from that. Going into pre-draft, I was like, make the most out of your workouts and attack your rehab hard and everything will go how it needs to go,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cVery blessed for this position that I\u2019m in and just very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoshuaJoshua Jefferson is interviewed during the 2026 NBA Draft on June 23. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jefferson is a 22-year-old rookie with a chance to garner real frontcourt minutes behind Randle and Michael Porter Jr. Despite holdovers Noah Clowney and Danny Wolf, Jefferson could boost Brooklyn\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n

After averaging 16.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and an impressive 4.8 assists \u2014 albeit just 34.5 percent from 3-point range \u2014 Jefferson will bring passing and physicality that could earn him early playing time.<\/p>\n

When Nets GM Sean Marks traded for Randle on Monday<\/a> and brought in the 28th pick along with him, it was with an eye toward targeting Jefferson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt absolutely was,\u201d Marks said. \u201cJosh was a guy that we have absolutely been all over all year long and watched how he played the game, his skill set. That definitely translates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh IQ, and when you watch him play \u2014 when Iowa State plays through him, his teammates feed off of him \u2014 he\u2019s definitely a facilitator out there. The toughness that he has. So there were a lot of intangibles. And then he\u2019s a winner, an absolute flat-out winner. There\u2019s an edge to how he plays and a toughness, which we loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bulk, force and toughness have been in increasing demand in the NBA playoffs lately and visibly and vexingly lacking in Brooklyn. But measuring 6-foot-7 \u00be and a solid 246 pounds at last month\u2019s draft combine, Jefferson says his physicality will translate quickly while he waits for his shooting to catch up.<\/p>\n

\"JoshuaJoshua Jefferson #5 of the Iowa State Cyclones takes a shot as Ramon Walker Jr. #3, and Emanuel Sharp #21 of the Houston Cougars defend in the first half of play at James H. Hilton Coliseum on February 16, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about my game that\u2019s going to translate pretty quickly is my physicality. The NBA is a physical game right now. You have to be physical in the playoffs to win, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to bring,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cThen just continue to work on my shot. Shooting it really well throughout this pre-draft process, a lot of reps. So if I continue to do that, it\u2019s going to keep me on the floor. And defending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson is a ground-bound big and not a rim protector. But he\u2019s a stout defender and excellent playmaker. Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez will be able to replace the departed Nic Claxton\u2019s playmaking from the center spot with Randle\u2019s at power forward \u2014 and perhaps Jefferson\u2019s as well.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way Josh plays with the ball, the DHOs, the reads, the passing ability,\u201d Marks said. \u201cThat\u2019s absolutely going to fit within Jordi\u2019s system and Jordi\u2019s style and how he wants to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson says he\u2019s studied skilled forwards like Paolo Banchero, Draymond Green, Naz Reid and Jaylin Williams, and specifically cited Randle. Now he\u2019ll get to back up and learn from the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be huge for me. I watched a lot of Julius Randle film throughout my senior season. It helped me a lot seeing his mid-post, post-up work is a work of art,\u201d Jefferson said. \u201cI\u2019m going to use him as a resource to improve my game and then just get a lot of assists off of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal with Illinois forward Ben Humrichous, per DraftExpress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Julius Randle and Mikel Brown Jr. have gotten all the Nets attention this week. But they traded for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,6,12,58501,671,66],"class_list":["post-770980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-draft-2026","tag-nets","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116815902034792013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770980","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=770980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}