All the best quotes and extras from Nets Media Day
Photo by Michelle Farsi/Getty Images
We got to know every single Brooklyn Net on the roster, at least in bits and pieces, at media day on Monday afternoon. Brooklyn Nets Media Day was not incredibly revealing, not that these events ever are. The vibes were quite good, spirits high, and though the promise of Ben Simmons reverberated once again throughout the walls of HSS Training Center, Brooklyn’s lone All-Star is not the the only attraction on this team.
Yongxi ‘Jacky’ Cui, if we’re going by sheer numbers, is as popular as anybody. Of course, much of that attention comes from his native China, and you can believe Mandarin-language media was well represented on Monday morning.
Cui shared the podium with two-way Jaylen Martin, and answered the first question of the three-hour event by nervously laughing into the microphone, admitting, “I mean, this is a big turn in my life.”
For a 21-year-old rookie from Guangxi who’s admitted he’s simply excited to see if he can play at this level (likely, mostly, the G League), it is indeed a big turn. Cui fielded questions in English and Mandarin with a big ‘ol grin on his face, and was even willing to delve into real off-the-court questions.
Joe Tsai reposted, on X/Twitter, Cui’s longest answer of the day...
(It’s worth noting that is Tsai’s first public statement, or anything resembling one, on the Brooklyn Nets in quite some time.)
Next up, we got our first batch of the second-chance ‘fliers’ the Nets took this off-season: Killian Hayes, Tyrese Martin, and Amari Bailey.
Hayes, the #7 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, fielded most of the questions. He even dropped the term “second draft” in an answer, fitting right into Brooklyn’s rebuilding culture.
“Yeah, definitely a restart. Definitely something that’s refreshing, something that’s new, and treating it like a second draft, kind of. I did my first four years, and then just coming in here is just something new, bringing your energy, learning from different people,” he said.
In terms of on-court value, the Frenchman mentioned that he’s confident in his defense as something that will play right away, specifically pestering opposing guards on the ball, while adding that his outside shot and foot-work was a big focus this summer.
Meanwhile, the two-way Amari Bailey discussed how excited he was to join high school teammate Ziaire Williams in Brooklyn, mentioning they’d talked about over a lopsided session of Madden they day prior.
Williams, of course, contested the results of their showdown, but what he said in the following five minutes got far more attention. It seems that Memphis Grizzlies fans took these quotes a certain way...
Ziaire Williams said he feels like "a loose bird finally let out of his cage" after being traded from the Grizzlies to the Nets:"Some days [in Memphis], I just kind of felt like I was trapped. I definitely feel a lot more free [here]... It's definitely a blessing in disguise." pic.twitter.com/tmJfRBx4nh— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) September 30, 2024
I don’t think Williams was intending to take a shot at Memphis, though. It’s certainly possible that the much-hyped #10 overall pick who landed on an instant-contender felt more pressure than he would’ve liked to, through no fault of the organization. Stuff happens.
Williams spoke of how proud he was of the lifelong relationships he built in Memphis, noting that he had just attended ex-teammate Desmond Bane’s wedding this Sumer.
It’s not surprising though, that Memphis fans felt slighted by these comments: “It’s a mindset thing. I don’t feel like everything I’m doing is being judged. Is this the right shot to take? Or am I doing the right thing? That’s the way I felt sometimes in Memphis.”
He said that while sitting next to Keon Johnson, who offered perhaps the most concise quote of the day about the team’s blossoming togetherness: “Everybody’s got their own way of expressing themselves, but I feel like us as a unit, we all have kind of latched on to each other and just started to become more comfortable, not only on the court, but just off the court.”
Then, we got our first #MuscleWatch update of media day. Noah Clowney took the podium to tell us he weighed in at 230 pounds — “with shoes on, so however you want to take that” — 20 pounds heavier than the beginning of last season.
Clowney wasn’t too interested in discussing whether he sees himself as a 4 or 5, just as a hooper who can play next to whoever, as Trendon Watford was the one who discussed his role and performance last season with more specificity.
“I just learned that I could do it,” he said of taking on real ball-handling responsibilities. “That was my first year playing on ball that much, probably since college, and just coming in the league ... I feel comfortable doing that, so looking forward to bringing that to the table again this year.”
More sophomores came next, as Jalen Wilson and Dariq Whitehead discussed their very different growth potential this upcoming season. For Wilson, it’s about maintaining consistency and continuing to shoot the ball, all the standard stuff you’d expect.
For Whitehead, however, he knows he has to play a healthy season of basketball before he and the Nets can fully evaluate him. In his opinion, it’s the offense that is more connected to his health, and that the experiences he was able to learn from in his rookie year came on the defensive side of the ball.
Cam Thomas’ only real interesting answers came in response to this Jordi Fernández quote from the Thursday prior...
Jordi Fernández on Cam Thomas: "Can I help [him] be more efficient of a scorer? If you look at the numbers, the less he dribbles, the more efficient of a scorer he is ... his superpower is to score the ball, and what we need to do is help him do that in an efficient way."— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) September 26, 2024
Said Thomas: “I do see why he says that. Because, I think that’s what everybody knows, efficiency goes up when you take less dribbles. But at the same time, we got to look at the context of when I do take all the dribbles. Like when I get the ball at the end of the clock, or when I get the ball end-of-possession. Most of the time, when I take most of those dribbles, it’s five seconds left, and everybody’s just looking at me to go one-on-one. So I mean, at that point I’m like, ‘what you want me to do?’”
Thomas, of course, is half-right here. The context of the 2023-24 Brooklyn Nets did him no favors. But you know, I don’t think Jordi Fernández was exclusively looking at end-of-shot-clock situations.
As for his expiring rookie deal and the absence of an extension, Thomas was unsurprisingly mum. He’s not focused on it, that’s not his job to worry about it, etc.
Same with the always gregarious Cam Johnson. Not that he’s up for an extension, but his future in Brooklyn is certainly in limbo. Everybody around the organization knows Johnson is unlikely to make it past the February trade deadline before getting shipped off to a playoff team, and he analyzed that as best he could on Monday.
“I understand the business, first and foremost,” said the 28-year-old wing. “I’m kind of getting the hang of how things work. And for me, I just said it’s never a hard feeling on anything that happens. I like Sean [Marks]. I like Sean a lot, and I appreciate Sean a lot, and that won’t change if I was traded two months ago, that won’t change if I’m traded two months from now, that won’t change if I remain a Net the rest of my career ... I let him know that first and foremost, and then after that, it was, ‘just let me know what’s going on.’”
Things got lighter after that, specifically when Johnson discussed the departure of noted ‘twin’ Mikal Bridges to some team across the East River: “Don’t be surprised if I put him in a headlock off the jump-ball or something ... he’s a slick-talker, he always has some celebration or something to say.”
Nic Claxton responded to Fernández’s promises to use him more on offense, discussing his excitement to pass and handle more often. He also re-iterated how happy he was to remain in Brooklyn this off-season, when he signed a four-year, $100 million deal with the team that drafted him: “They’ve loved me from day one. They’ve appreciated my work, and I feel the same way about them. So it was an easy decision to make.”
But wait, what if your team rebuilds? “I mean, I just work here. Whoever the organization decides to roll with, that’s who I’m gonna roll with.”
Fair enough. Dennis Schröder discussed the training-camp battle he’ll have with Ben Simmons for the starting point guard spot, comments we covered in-depth just after media day. However, the German FIBA sensation also said this about the NBA, perhaps notable considering what went on this summer between him and Kevin Durant: “The quality of the players here is just different. That’s why it’s the best league in the world.”
Bojan Bogdanović and Shake Milton were the final pre-encore song, and Bogdanović expressed his gratitude to be back where his NBA career started, though technically, his first training camp was spent, literally, in New Jersey. Remember that? “I was here when they built this place,” he said of HSS Training Center.
I think Milton is an underrated this-guy-might-play-some-real-minutes candidate, at least early on in the season. He’s 28 years old and has already been a useful NBA player, more than a lot of this Brooklyn roster can say. He’s gotten actual buckets, even in the playoffs, as he spent the first five years of his career in Philly.
Now he’s been on four teams in the last year.
““Last year was definitely a little bit different. I feel like I was able to really experience the business side of the league and just everything that comes with it ... So that was definitely in itself an experience, but I feel like it definitely helped me grow, from a mindset standpoint. Just just knowing what I’m looking for, the way that I carry myself, the way I go about my business. I think it definitely helped me grow, and I’m thankful for that, so I’m able to take that with me.”
Always good to turn a tough situation into a positive.
Dorian Finney-Smith and Day’Ron Sharpe closed media day with a whole lot of levity, two Southern dudes with plenty of that regional charm which shined when they reflected on the process of becoming real New Yorkers:
The two laugh a lot, but they are also damn competitive.
Here’s Sharpe on Las Vegas’ over/under on wins for the Nets, set at 19.5: “Yes, I find it disrespectful. Just because we got a lot of guys that people don’t know, doesn’t mean that we’re going to win just 19 games ... I’m trying to win as many games as possible and I just feel like a lot of people are going to doubt us and we’re gonna show them.”
Obviously, Sharpe knows they’re rebuilding, but the professional athlete having a chip on his shoulder is not news.
Nets Media Day simply proved that Brooklyn has a roster full of personable guys that can hopefully win just enough games for that quality to shine through. There’s no doubt they feel close as a group, especially with a 0-0 record, and no doubt that they feel slighted by low expectations.
Will that translate into more wins? Probably not. But that’s not what media day is really about, is it?
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