{"id":860751,"date":"2026-10-16T23:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860751\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T23:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:18:20","slug":"mikel-brown-jr-s-promising-nets-debut-comes-with-praise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/860751\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Brown Jr.’s promising Nets debut comes with praise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before Mikel Brown Jr.<\/a> pulled up from 28 feet in his preseason debut, Day\u2019Ron Sharpe saw him get his first dunk.<\/p>\n

Brown was 5-foot-3, maybe 5-foot-4, when Sharpe began following him in eighth grade. He watched the guard grow, score 40 points at Louisville and eventually become his Nets teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already knew. I\u2019ve been watching [Mikel] since eighth grade, man. I already knew,\u201d Sharpe said.<\/p>\n

Nikola Jovi\u0107 slid under a screen just 32 seconds into Wednesday\u2019s game in Miami. Brown, now 20 standing at 6-5, pulled up and buried the first preseason 3-pointer of his professional career. The Nets<\/a> lost 144-128 to the Miami Heat, but its No. 6 pick scored 15 points in 18 minutes after missing the first three exhibitions with a sprained left ankle.<\/p>\n

Brown made four of seven shots, including two 3-pointers. Several of his smartest possessions ended without him shooting. Three times, he threaded pocket passes to Mo Wagner as two defenders converged, creating four-on-three advantages. Brooklyn turned those opportunities into open shots, including a 3-pointer and a lob dunk. His two official assists didn\u2019t account for every opening he created.<\/p>\n

\u201cMikel\u2019s a stud,\u201d Michael Porter Jr. said. \u201cHe looked very comfortable, poised out there, made right passes, scored pretty well, got downhill. So, he can do a lot of different things out there. He\u2019ll be great for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown spent training camp learning to stop on two feet, simplify his decisions and resist forcing plays. He was excited to finally play, but he\u2019d learned how to settle his nerves.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach has been emphasizing me just be ultra-aggressive and just be smart,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo, going into it, yeah, there was a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement, but I\u2019ve definitely grown in that aspect of trying to calm myself down and trying to play within the game and just finding the flow of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez came away encouraged, particularly by Brown\u2019s speed, craftiness, shot-making and willingness to communicate. The Nets coach believes \u201chis game translates right away offensively.\u201d His next challenge is sustaining production while adapting to the physical demands of defending NBA players.<\/p>\n

Brown will remain on a minutes restriction for the Nets\u2019 regular-season opener against the Charlotte Hornets next week, Fern\u00e1ndez confirmed Friday. The team hasn\u2019t announced a new limit, and Brown said he hasn\u2019t been told how much it might increase. He felt great after his debut and intends to maintain his ankle routine, with the goal of playing all 82 games.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez doesn\u2019t plan to rush him into the starting lineup. In his view, players limited to fewer than 24 minutes are difficult to start because it becomes harder to save enough playing time for the end of games.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as you\u2019re building, coming off the bench, I still have the luxury to finish games with him if I need to,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn\u2019s medical and performance staff will guide Brown\u2019s ramp up. His coach wants him to handle greater defensive physicality and maintain his intensity on both ends, while leaving room for his role to change as his workload grows.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez can also use him in different combinations. Brown can initiate the offense or play off the ball alongside Egor D\u00ebmin or Nolan Traor\u00e9. Julius Randle\u2019s ability to bring the ball up adds another option. Brown sees little need to alter his approach based on who shares the backcourt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all positionless,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we all are playmakers at the end of the day so we can play off the ball, get in the half court and make something happen, just be ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting or coming off the bench won\u2019t change Brown\u2019s preparation, he said. His immediate assignment is to build on Wednesday\u2019s debut, one healthy game at a time. The rookie\u2019s family made the trip to Miami to watch, too.\u00a0 Brown saw them after the game, before they returned to Orlando, arriving home at 3 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said before, the sacrifices that they made for me to be here in this moment, it was great,\u201d Brown said. \u201cTo be able to see them after the game was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before Mikel Brown Jr. pulled up from 28 feet in his preseason debut, Day\u2019Ron Sharpe saw him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,2280,39997,6,671,3971],"class_list":["post-860751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn-nets","tag-basketball","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklynnets","tag-debut","tag-mikel-brown","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-preseason"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117453147537843581","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860751","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=860751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}