Nets showing off draft lottery combo they hope will be the future
LAS VEGAS — Egor Dëmin and Mikel Brown Jr. — the Nets’ lottery picks the past two years — are set to play Tuesday’s summer league tilt against Sacramento, giving Nets fans another glimpse at their potential backcourt of the future.
Both 20-year-olds were held out of Saturday’s loss to Atlanta, while Brown had missed the first two of three California Classic games. But fans will relish seeing them on the floor together against the Kings.
“That’s the goal,” Nets summer league coach Dutch Gaitley said. “The goal is a nice off-day … get some work in on Monday, and then we’re ready to play the Kings and, hopefully, avenge our first loss of summer league.”
The Nets picked Brown at No. 6 overall in last month’s draft — they chose him over Darius Acuff Jr., who went one spot later to Sacramento — and the rookie had 20 points on 6-for-12 shooting and 3-for-6 from deep in the rout of the Knicks.
Meanwhile, Acuff is averaging 19.5 points and 4.5 assists. He also has averaged 3.5 turnovers on just 26-for-82 shooting along with horrific defense.
Ben Saraf has shown his usual downhill game but still is struggling to hit shots. He’s hitting just 27.3 percent and 1-for-7 from deep in two summer league games.
Gaitley said the key for the second-year guard is his reads.
“Ben’s one of our highest paint-touch guys. It’s now that read of, ‘Is it time for me to be aggressive in score? Is it time for me to spray?’ ” Gaitley said. “Sometimes, he gets a little deep, and he’s like, ‘I’m going to score. I’m going to score,’ and then the read is to pass. And then other times, he’s like ‘All right, I’m going to pass; I’m going to pass,’ and the read is to score.
“So, helping him on that so he’s not predetermining and he’s just reading what the defense does. He does a great job getting into the paint. Now, it’s helping him get into those reads. The other thing is he gets caught in-between playing off two feet and playing off one foot. You play off two feet, you can pivot, allow your teammates to get in space. You play off one, you’re in the air; it leads to turnovers.”
Despite being used at forward this summer rather than center. Danny Wolf has added about 10 pounds of muscle in hopes bulk and better interior footwork help his finishing.
“It’s just my physicality and just playing a little bit bigger,” Wolf said of improved finishing. “Then within that, just as the game slows down, making better reads, being better with the ball, and then just playing simpler, and then just continuing to find consistency in the 3-point shot.”
Nolan Traore won’t play at all in summer league due to having his right knee scoped. But he joined the Nets here and got some stationary shots up at practice Monday. Grant Nelson also isn’t playing but was on hand getting work in at Monday’s practice as well.
