{"id":808308,"date":"2026-08-10T13:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/808308\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T13:22:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T13:22:16","slug":"gm-sean-marks-excited-about-young-brooklyn-nets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/808308\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Sean Marks \u2018excited\u2019 about young Brooklyn Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean Marks has spent the past several seasons promising Brooklynites that this massive rebuild will begin to take shape.<\/p>\n

Listening to the Nets\u2019 long-time general manager during Brooklyn\u2019s 115-83 Summer League rout of Sacramento on Tuesday at Las Vegas\u2019 Thomas & Mack Center might lead you to believe it\u2019s happening sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery excited about this group,\u201d Marks said while watching last year\u2019s eighth overall pick Egor D\u0451min put up 16 of his team-high 22 points in the opening quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, they\u2019re young but they\u2019re out there competing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young is an understatement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first- and second-year players the Nets sent to their annual offseason tournament helped comprise the most youthful roster the NBA had seen in 20 years last season.<\/p>\n

Though Brooklyn lost 62 games, it also got a good, hard look at its historic haul of five first-round picks from 2025.<\/p>\n

Add in sixth overall selection Mikel Brown Jr. from June\u2019s draft and the Nets have plenty of talent to build another postseason contender around.<\/p>\n

Especially with the addition of veteran forward Julius Randle via a draft-day deal that sent center Nic Claxton off to Chicago. And the potential of bringing Michael Porter Jr. back long term if he and the Nets can come to an agreement at some point this year.<\/p>\n

But it is the youth that will determine if Marks was prudent in gathering a plethora of picks while selling off superstars Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Mikal Bridges, Dorian Finney-Smith and Dennis Schr\u00f6der.<\/p>\n

The development of these players under Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez has been gradual through the customary growing pains.<\/p>\n

In Vegas, however, Marks enjoyed watching the fruits of the organization\u2019s labor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing hard,\u201d he gushed. \u201cThey\u2019re playing the right way. You see the ball moving around. These guys are competing \u2014 diving on the floor for loose balls. They want to compete for something, so that\u2019s exciting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown Jr. impressed in his second outing, putting up 16 points in 19 minutes to go with five assists and four turnovers.<\/p>\n

This after producing 10 points in last week\u2019s California Classic against Golden State and 20 last Friday in the Summer League opener vs. the defending NBA champion Knicks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynNets general manager Sean Marks expressed his enthusiasm regarding the team\u2019s youth movement during Brooklyn\u2019s Summer League win over Sacramento on Tuesday. Photo: Mary Altaffer\/AP<\/p>\n

Brown sat out Saturday\u2019s loss to Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen so far, not only in the California Classic Summer League, but in Vegas here, is just how he\u2019s got those leadership characteristics,\u201d Marks said of Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201c(He\u2019s) taken a lot of the guys under his wing, and spent time with them away from the court as well, which is really unique for a young man like that,\u201d he added. \u201cThose things will translate to a really, really positive career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A career the Nets are hoping will result in the lottery pick being their point guard for the next decade or so.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez, who received a long-term extension in April, has endured 118 defeats in his two years at the helm here.<\/p>\n

Yet, Marks believes the long-time assistant via Denver and Sacramento can be in charge of this rebuild for years to come, if, of course, the Nets begin to contend for more than lottery picks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s really shined from Jordi and how he\u2019s approached his first few years here has been just how honest he is with players,\u201d Marks said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJordy lets everybody know right off the get-go and and owns it. He\u2019s honest with it. Honest about himself, honest about the mistakes that he makes. \u2026 That\u2019s a special leader, and he\u2019s been absolutely tremendous in these first couple years.\u201c\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rookie Joshua Jefferson had nine points on 4-of-7 shooting against the Kings after making only one of eight field-goal attempts in the opener.<\/p>\n

Ben Saraf led the reserves with 11 points and starters Drake Powell and Danny Wolf added 18 and 14 points, respectively, while logging at least 20 minutes apiece.<\/p>\n

The Nets will close out the three-game Summer League slate ahead of a potential bid to the four-team championship round on Thursday vs. Houston.<\/p>\n

\"FILEVeteran forward Julius Randle will play a vital role in helping the youngest roster in the NBA develop this coming season. Photo: Abbie Parr\/AP<\/p>\n

NOTHING BUT NET: Randle, who spent five years in New York with the Knicks before playing in Minnesota the last two campaigns, will be providing veteran leadership to the youthful Nets in our borough. Whether Porter Jr. inks a deal to remain is yet to be seen, but Randle has already indicated his willingness to grow alongside Marks\u2019 youthful group. \u201cI look at how enthusiastic Julius is about coming back here and you know being in New York again, and so forth,\u201d Marks said Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s been on winning franchises. He understands what it takes. He\u2019s a pro\u2019s pro. He\u2019s a powerful player \u2014 that\u2019s something we\u2019re looking for.\u201d \u2026 Coming off an impressive finish to his rookie year, guard Nolan Traor\u00e9 isn\u2019t competing with the Nets this summer after undergoing surgery on his right knee earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean Marks has spent the past several seasons promising Brooklynites that this massive rebuild will begin to take…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,26565,6,671,93292,3596],"class_list":["post-808308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-national-basketball-association-nba","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-no-paywall","tag-sean-marks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117071429622486703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808308","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=808308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}