LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Nets added an NBA-record five first-round picks last month, four of whom suited up and made their summer league debuts Thursday.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no surprise the one who adjusted the quickest is the one who plays the quickest: lightning-fast Nolan Traor\u00e9, one of the highlights in an opening 90-81 loss to OKC.<\/p>\n
The French point guard was the only Nets rookie to crack double figures with 13 points, three assists, three rebounds and several quick bursts into the lane. <\/p>\n
Nets guard Nolan Traore handles the ball during the first half of summer league action against the Thunder on Thursday in Las Vegas. AP<\/p>\n
He was even fighting through an early ankle injury while shaking off first-game jitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a little bit hard because I rolled my ankle really early. \u2026 It took awhile. You\u2019ve got to go into it quickly and be ready. So it wasn\u2019t that long,\u201d Traor\u00e9 said. \u201cI was a little bit [sore] on the break with the ankle. But it\u2019s all right. I\u2019ll be right back on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traor\u00e9 twisted his ankle and gave way to Ben Saraf with 6:22 remaining in the first quarter and the Nets down 8-4. By the time he came back in for the Israeli guard, they trailed 24-18 with 8:20 left in the half.<\/p>\n
The speedster finished as the only Net with a positive plus-minus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think his speed translates very well,\u201d said Nets assistant Steve Hetzel, who is coaching summer league.<\/p>\n
Nolan Traore of the Nets drives to the basket during summer league action against the Thunder on Thursday in Las Vegas. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely put him in some actions where he could throw it and get it back and try to attack the rim. I thought he handled himself well with the physicality. I think, for all of our rookies, that\u2019s something that\u2019s gonna come over time. Getting in the weight room and their bodies maturing. So I look forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Egor Demin was the Nets\u2019 first lottery pick since 2010 and played point guard at BYU, it was Traor\u00e9 who found himself largely shouldering lead guard duties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just game flow. So whoever gets the ball, whoever is the closest is going to get it,\u201d Traor\u00e9 said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t mind if it\u2019s me or him. We just play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care who brings the ball up. We just want to play because, as you say, there\u2019s multiple guys who can handle the ball, so we don\u2019t care who. We just play through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dariq Whitehead isn\u2019t playing in summer league. <\/p>\n
He told The Post it was the result of a discussion that his agents at Excel Sports had with general manager Sean Marks in an effort to get him through his injuries and 100 percent ready for the regular season.<\/p>\n
Toronto Raptors center Orlando Robinson (21) chases Brooklyn Nets forward Dariq Whitehead (0) during the second half at Barclays Center on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Brooklyn, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely, me coming to play, obviously at the end of last season I was getting ready to prepare for summer league,\u201d Whitehead said. \u201cAnd then with the way I finished last season, it was just something that I guess my agent talked to Sean about and they were [thinking] more so get my body ready and prepare for training camp and next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nets renounced the free agent rights to Day\u2019Ron Sharpe and Ziaire Williams, per Spotrac. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ll be re-signed, either both via cap space or one via the room exception. <\/p>\n
The Nets have $22.3 million in cap space and could create more by using the room exception, or waiving non-guaranteed players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The Nets added an NBA-record five first-round picks last month, four of whom suited up…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3124,1260,35848,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-56485","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-brooklyn-nets","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-summer-league","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114833895299615428","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}