{"id":848983,"date":"2026-10-02T07:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/848983\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T07:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T07:15:16","slug":"mikel-brown-jr-has-no-timetable-as-nets-prioritize-full-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/848983\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Brown Jr. has no timetable as Nets prioritize full recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Injured Mikel Brown Jr. can\u2019t wait to play. But he might have to. The rookie is the biggest key to Brooklyn\u2019s rebuild.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why his rehab and return have to be right, not rushed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brown rolled his left ankle last week and has gotten back out on the court on a limited basis in practice. But as of Thursday, he hasn\u2019t been cleared for contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, as of right now they\u2019re just telling me you could get back moving a little bit, really just trying to get the strengthening it up back,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI mean, I am back on the court moving. That\u2019s all I\u2019m really worried about right now. I\u2019m just taking it one step at a time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynBrooklyn Nets\u2019 Mikel Brown Jr. looks on during practice at the HSS Training Center, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Brown said the Nets training staff hasn\u2019t told him exactly what the next step is. He wouldn\u2019t exactly call patience his strong suit, but he\u2019s learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I have no choice but to be patient,\u201d Brown said with a wan smile. \u201cI want to be out there so bad, but they\u2019ve just been emphasizing to me, \u2018Let\u2019s take our time with this stuff and get you back 100 percent,\u2019 which me, I\u2019m trying to play as soon as possible. So really just attacking this rehab, focusing on stuff that I can control.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nets open the preseason Tuesday in Charlotte and have offered no clarity on the severity of Brown\u2019s injury or his timeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn also has three other preseason games before the regular-season opener Oct. 21 in Brooklyn against the Hornets. When asked if he expects to get at least some live action in the preseason, Brown was non-committal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynBrooklyn Nets\u2019 Mikel Brown Jr. shoots during practice at the HSS Training Center, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, that\u2019s up to the performance staff,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019m just doing what I can to get back on the court as of right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked to pick out who has impressed him the most since camp started or who has taken a step forward, Michael Porter Jr. pointed out Keon Ellis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKeon has been hooping these first [few] days,\u201d Porter said. \u201cHe plays the right way. He plays defense. He can really shoot the ball, and he\u2019s been just overall very solid.\u201d\u00a0<\/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

Porter and Julius Randle have been playing on different sides so far in camp, kept separated by Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And they didn\u2019t play together Thursday, with Fern\u00e1ndez switching things up and going no-contact to rest his players\u2019 legs before a lot of playing Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re tired, you can lose it easily. And [Thursday] being a non-contact session and a session that it\u2019s more mental with the film and the walk-throughs and installing new things, your brain needs to be there,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cIt was very positive like an active recovery where you still need to advance. \u2026 It was a great day. And then [Friday], it\u2019s going to be a big high-load game day with a lot of playing. with a lot of playing. And players, they love to play, so they\u2019re excited about tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Injured Mikel Brown Jr. can\u2019t wait to play. But he might have to. The rookie is the biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,29026,6,671,66],"class_list":["post-848983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-mikel-brown-jr","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117370088956123812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848983","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=848983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/848984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}