The Nets made the unprecedented move of drafting five rookies in the first round. Could they have their own version of the ‘Fab Five,’ the celebrated all-freshman lineup for the University of Michigan in the early ’90s?
“We’re gonna have to prove ourselves,” said Danny Wolf, who played for Michigan last season. “The Fab Five arguably is one of the best college teams of all time, so if we can consider ourselves the Fab Five of the NBA at some point in time, that would be pretty cool. But I’ll leave it up to you guys [in the media] to give us a nickname.”
The highest of those draft picks was the No. 8 selection, BYU guard Egor Demin.
“This is special,” Demin said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Obviously no other team ever did the same thing in the draft. I think for me and the other guys it’s important to be really as close as we can be to each other, not just to compete, which obviously is a big part of it, but also to learn from each other on the court and off the court and learn from the older guys on the team and try to find ways to be together and play together as fast as we can.”
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Has time made Kevin Durant more wistful about his days with the Nets? Durant and former coach Steve Nash discussed their Brooklyn experiences during LeBron James‘ ‘Mind the Game’ podcast (hat tip to Collin Helwig of Nets Daily). “I felt like we had great intentions. I felt like we cared enough. I feel like every day we were trying to push towards winning the champ. It was a great vibe in there. Some of the best times,” KD said. “That first year? That’s why I signed that deal. That first year, man, most fun ball I had. Some of the most fun ball I had playing my whole life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Brooklyn a lot. I love playing for Brooklyn, but it’s just so much stuff happened around the guys that were committed to the situation. It felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn’t.”
- The Nets made a number of their offseason moves official on Tuesday but there’s still no resolution on Cam Thomas, who remains a restricted free agent. There have been no rumblings regarding another team preparing an offer sheet for him and the Nets apparently don’t want to overpay to keep him, according to Nets Daily. In an interview with Connor Long on the ‘Brooklyn Boys’ podcast, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested the Nets might be playing hardball with Thomas. “I would say Cam Thomas wants to be paid and apparently the Nets aren’t eager to pay him.”
- With his offensive skills, Wolf plays like a guard in a center’s body. Wolf slipped to the No. 27 pick and might be a steal. “Danny, we talked about the high IQ and a skill set that’s very unique for a person his size,” GM Sean Marks said, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link). “So, to see him out there, other teams continue trying to figure out, well, ‘How do we stop him? Who do we guard him with? What system do we put around him?’ And that’s a unique problem to have, right?”