Lost in the Nets’ Dennis Schroder trade — and the high-level impact on tanking and the draft — are the young guards going out, and coming back in.
The Nets brought back two-way guard Reece Beekman from Golden State, and waived Yongxi Cui — now out for the year with a torn ACL — to make room.
“When you’re able to acquire a young guy that we’ve been studying for a while, going back to his college days, the group here has been focused on [Beekman] and bringing him in and taking a good close-up look at him,” GM Sean Marks said.
“So from a defensive standpoint, we’re going to miss some of the things with Dennis leaving, and hopefully when Reece comes in here, he can pick up the slack. And he’ll have every opportunity like the rest of these guys to go out there and compete, earn minutes and be a part of this rotation, hopefully.”
He’ll almost have to.
Schroder will be replaced by Ben Simmons, but the Nets don’t have another proven point guard.
Shake Milton and Keon Johnson are backup off-guards, and Killian Hayes has not impressed playing for G-League Long Island.
The 6-foot-3 Beekman is an undrafted rookie but has outperformed Hayes in the G League.
He’s averaging 18.7 points on 51.5 percent shooting for Santa Cruz, 7.3 assists (ninth in the G League), 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 steals (third in the league).
“Yeah, excited to have him,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “Defensive-minded player; I think he led his conference in steals. A point guard that will help our ball pressure, our activity on defense, playmaking, running the team. So, excited to have him. He’ll get here soon, so we’ll get to work with him soon.”
Beekman was just the third player to ever win back-to-back ACC Defensive Player of the Year awards, and has carried that into the G League.
With the rebuilding Nets, he’ll get a legitimate shot in the NBA.
Hayes is the bigger player and bigger name, but is shooting just 30 percent from deep for Long Island and 60 percent from the charity stripe.
Cui was waived to make room for Beekman.
Milton is primarily an off-guard, but has logged 40 percent of his minutes this season as a point guard.
That could rise in the immediate future.
“Just continuing to do what we do: Get out, play fast, play with pace, pace and space. Get in the lane. Create for myself, create for others,” Milton said. “[Schroder’s] points for sure, something that we’re gonna miss. But he also [had] around seven assists a game. And then also he was the leader when it came to picking up full court. So those are important things you’ve got to pick up on, too.”
Monday marks the return of Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson for the first time as a head coach since the Nets fired him.
