The final day of the Brooklyn Nets pre-draft workouts for the 2015 NBA Draft saw the best collective list of talent yet. Andrew Harrison, Pat Connaughton, Cliff Alexander, Branden Dawson, Olivier Hanlan and Sam Thompson were in for workouts with the team that owns the 29th and 41st picks respectively but it was the Nets GM, Billy King, who stole the show at the teams headquarters. Fittingly of course, right before King spoke to the media, it was announced that forward Thaddeus Young would opt out of his deal with Brooklyn. So all eyes were on Billy King.
King has a history of making moves on draft day, so making a deal this year might be expected and it is that history of making moves that could come up to possibly help the Nets move up in the draft. One of the most recent, of course was the Nets trades for then Boston Celtics Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry on draft night in 2013.
This season, they were victims of a pick swap, due to a Billy King trade for Joe Johnson, and instead of having the 15th pick they have the Atlanta Hawks 29th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.
Despite the low draft position, it appears Nets GM Billy King isn’t sold on trading up in the draft. Despite rumors that Mason Plumlee might be a player getting shopped to help get a better position to acquire a possibly more talented player.
“Do I think we can move up? Um, I don’t think so. But you’ve still got to get in the process and find out. (In) a lot of conversation, the price to move up is high, but it tends to come down as you get closer to the draft. So we’ve been in a lot of discussions.”
That late in the draft, to select a guy that can immediately come in and perform is very rare. King knows it and he understands that’s a part of the risk when you make deals to affect your team at the present time with future draft picks. It may have come back to haunt the Nets. The talent level of a player at that low of a pick might not be known at the time of being drafted but talent isn’t first on King’s list.
“One, we’re going to start with character, we want guys with very high character because if they have that they’ll be willing to work, and be willing to fit in as part of the team. Then we’re going to look for guys that we see that fit Lionel, the way he wants to coach, the way we want to play. Tough-minded, try to get some guys that can move the ball around a little bit. Shooting is always a premium if you can get that.
“But we’re not going to take someone that we are projecting is going to be a certain thing. We’re going to try to look at them and figure out what they can do now, and not try to project. Because I think when you try to project, you can make a mistake. If they’ve got a good skillset, you look for if they’ve got one good skillset that can translate to the pros, that’s what you try to build off of.”
It’s hard to assess talent in any NBA Draft particularly once you get out of the top 10 or so picks. The farther you go down with the selections, the slimmer the choices become. It’s rare to get a guy like Isaiah Thomas or Draymond Green so late in the draft with that much talent and have them turn out to be stars but hopefully the Nets can find a gem with one of their late picks. King is well aware of the history of hits and misses, so hopefully for the Brooklyn fans and the Nets alike, they can find that diamond in the rough.
The NBA Draft will be held this Thursday (June 25th) at the Barclays Center starting at 8 PM.
