In the first episode of the Nets newest video, Brooklyn’s content team introduces the “players” in the nine-part series, reveals process.
“If you want something you never had, you have to do something you never have done.”
In their quest to establish a new brand of “sustainability” as well as recapture a collective buy-in from its fans, that phrase has a dual meaning for the Brooklyn Nets right now. It’s no wonder Jordi Fernández had it up on a whiteboard less than four minutes into the first episode of SCOUT.
While the young coach, focused primarily on that first goal, wasn’t addressing Brooklyn’s media team back in September. His primary audience was the Nets scouting staff assembled before him, but those words could have applied to them all the same — and this new project of theirs.
With this first episode of the docuseries now out, Brooklyn allowed fans to peer in on front office operations like they’ve never been able to before. While it may have had the same look and feel as The Bridge, it’s indeed something the franchise has never done — so there’s the first part of the equation.
The other will likely take some time to come to fruition. This first episode essentially just set the groundwork for the series at large, as any good pilot would. Nonetheless, there were still a handful of important easter eggs, quotes, and shots you might have missed. Here’s our spoiler-filled review and complete breakdown, minus the whacky thumbnail and “please like and subscribe” callout.
Getting Real
Brooklyn made no efforts to dance around the tumultuous handful of seasons that came before this most recent one, which frankly for their fans felt like a tiresome chore along the lines of painting a fence or mowing a lawn.
Hours removed from New York’s opening round win vs the Boston Celtics, the Nets gently reminded everyone that even though Mikal Bridges made the play at the end of the game last night, they still won that trade according to public opinion, the docuseries producers flashing clip after clip from different media outlets. The intent was not only reminding fans of how we got her, but celebrating the haul they acquired in exchange for the swingman. They even got some direct praise from Jonathan Givony, who’s spearheaded much of ESPN’s NBA Draft analysis since 2017.
“It was honestly pretty amazing the turnaround that they’ve made that they were able to flip it from Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving to now having the treasure trove of picks and having a really promising future ahead, not just this year but in future years,” said Givony. “It’s set them off in a really positive direction.”
Not long after, B.J. Johnson mic’d up and took us a few years further back, remarking on Brooklyn’s unique position, mentioning how they were once, “a toenail away from a championship, potentially.”
Even if momentarily, it was a rare instance where the franchise seemed to acknowledge how close its 2020-21 team was to achieving its ultimate goal. Nonetheless, Johnson wasted little time getting back to the topic at hand — Brooklyn’s next chance to do so.
“Now we’re on the backside of that,” he said. “Now we can rebuild and we can rebuild in a way that highlights Brooklyn, and our culture, and our organization, and the city.”
A Note on That Quote
Not long after, Johnson went on to say the following:
“We don’t look at this as just a one time thing, this could set us up for the next five, 10 years of our organization,” said Johnson. “So to me, personally, we get these next three years right, we’re in a really good position.”
In a season (and now offseason) where half of the news pertaining to the Nets involved them making a run at a star by shopping their draft assets, this quote naturally conjured up a lot of attention on social media. However, these meetings took place in September, before last season.
While there’s no indication that those plans have changed for Brooklyn in light of Milwaukee’s early playoff exit or any of the other reports mentioning them star chasing, it’s still worth noting that those comments from Johnson came two-thirds of a year ago, which is different than him making them a week ago.
Indeed, Johnson, who came to the Nets from a development role with USA Basketball eight years ago, was the star of the first episode and considering his experience running the Nets Draft for the last five years, likely to be a big player throughout all nine episodes.
Team and Tasks
Speaking later, Johnson revealed that Brooklyn’s draft prep team got to work “right away” after the conclusion of last year’s draft. He also added that while Sean Marks is “leading the charge,” Assistant GM Andy Birdsong mainly focuses on the “pro and performance” side of things, while Johnson himself tackles amateur scouting and “getting the draft right.”
The episode then moved on to highlight the collaborative efforts of the scouting team, revealed to include six regional collge scouts plus multiple international ones. And it should be noted virtually everyone in basketball operations gets involved. One short clip showed Simone Casali, director of international scouting, talking with Matt MacDonald, Long Island’s GM, presumably at a European game.
One of those regional scouts on hand was Eddie Oran, who’s been with the organization in at least some capacity for 17 years. Oran was a Texas Longhorns assistant earlier in his career, but is also a color analyst for UT television broadcasts … meaning he’s seen every Tre Johnson game. File that one away come June 25.
The episode then took us to the Gold Coast of Australia, specifically with Marks and international scout Richard Midgley also back in September. Based on Marks’ commentary, it feels fair to say the team is leaving no stone or continent unturned, even if it’s 10,000 miles away. (The Nets also recently sent a scout even further, to China, to scout Hansen Yang, a 7’1” big projected as a second rounder.)
“Here in Australia, you’re looking at a diverse group,” Marks said. “Several Australians are gonna be here. There’s Europeans down here. There’s Americans from high school who have come down here. Five, six, seven draft eligible players that will really fall into our range.”
Among those Marks looked at were Alex Toohey, a 6’8” wing, and Rocco Zikarsky, a 7’3” big, both projected late. He also scouted Karim Lopez, a 6’8” Mexican guard who’s projected as a lottery pick in 2026.
Collaboration Welcomed
Through these trips inside HSS and even car rides with Marks in rainy Brisbane, Australia, Episode One also gave us an idea of the work environment within the front office. Based on Marks’ commentary and that of his peers, Brooklyn seems to deploy a democratic system of operations opposed to one where the head man simply calls all the shots.
About two-thirds of the way into the episode, one shot showed the Nets main conference room with the words “disagree and commit” cut into a wall. Marks indicated it’s more than just fine decor.
“The challenge I have for this group, is this group better be the loudest f***king scouting group I’ve ever seen,” said Marks. “We are to disagree and we are committed. Let’s have that debate.”
“That’s why we have these kinds of discussions so we can have all this stuff out on the table because there might be a thought that’s a really valid thought that now, we’re all looking at the same thing and talking the same language,” said as well.
It’s also, Nets officials will tell you, a key precept of the front office culture: disagree inside this room, but don’t take those disagreements outside it.
Now, I doubt Brooklyn would green light any footage including Marks or either of the Assistant GMs reaming out a scout if something like that ever occurred. However, I also doubt the team would opt to emphasize the idea of an environment that welcomes different opinions if it weren’t, at the very least, partially true.
“Just spending some time away from the office is always good,” said Midgley. “To build, kind of, a good, trusting relationship to where I can challenge his [Sean’s] opinion, or he challenge mine.”
While there’s no official word yet on when episodes will drop, Brooklyn plans to add new installments “weekly through the end of June” when of course the scouts will be once again at HSS to watch how their work product ultimately plays out a couple of miles at Barclays Center where once again the Draft will take place.