NBA fans everywhere probably won't believe this but the Brooklyn Nets did have two first-round picks in the 2015 NBA Draft. OK, so they had one first-round pick and traded for another guy drafted in the first round, but you get the point.
Those two players, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Chris McCullough, are both extremely athletic and have tremendous upside. The issue for the Nets with these two players is they have both missed huge portions of their rookie years with injuries. When Hollis-Jefferson was playing earlier in the season, McCullough was recovering from a torn ACL. When McCullough returned from the torn ACL, Hollis-Jefferson was recovering from ankle surgery.
Hollis-Jefferson finally returned to the lineup Tuesday night in the Nets loss to the Charlotte Hornets, but McCullough did not play. McCullough is fully healthy and capable of playing, but interim head coach Tony Brown said the reason for him not playing (he has been a DNP- coach's decision the last two games) was because he is struggling to learn the playbook.
Since McCullough has come back from the ACL tear, the Nets have eased him into his first NBA action. The rookie has appeared in 12 games, but is averaging just 10.8 minutes in those games. For now, they have him on a strict minute's limit, which makes sense considering he is coming off of major surgery and the Nets have nothing to play for. McCullough owns modest averages of 2.8 points and 1.4 rebounds in his short stints, but has shown flashes when he has been out there.
While Brown has left McCullough on the bench the last couple of games, he doesn't plan to continue that for the rest of the season. He said he will give him opportunities, but he has to take advantage of them. This is both good and bad for the Nets. On the one hand, you want McCullough to feel like he has to earn everything, so he works as hard as possible to get better. On the other hand, though, he is a big part of what the Nets hope is a bright future and they need to get him experience so he can grow as quickly as possible.
McCullough's case is a little different because he is coming off a big injury, so Brown can use that as an excuse, but at some point he has to just let the kid play. Hollis-Jefferson has shown that he can be a very impactful NBA player. Now Nets fans want to see if McCullough has that same type of ability at the NBA level. Both of the rookies have had their issues this season, but they are two key pieces for whether the Nets get better or if things stay the same.
