The Nets don’t announce what draft prospects they’re working out at HSS Training Center or even the schedule of how often they have guys in. It’s all state secrets, a far cry from the days a decade ago when the team’s top scout would hold court with beat reporters following each session, providing thumbnail profiles of each player. Those days are gone.
Still, we know that there’s a steady flow of prospects — usually six at a time — getting dropped off at 168 39th Street and taking the elevator up to the eighth floor where they show their wares to the team’s decision-makers ... and even a few players.
There are workouts, interviews and scrimmages. Overall, in a normal year, based on scattered reports in the past, about 60 to 75 prosects get looked at. This, of course, is not a normal year. At the moment, the Brooklyn Nets have picks at Nos. 8, 19, 26, 27 and 36.
Based on a number of sources, from agents and even players announcing their workouts on social media, to reporters working sources or Hoopshype’s annual workout tracker, we have some intelligence on who’s been in.
At the moment, it’s uncertain whether two of the biggest prospects tied to the Nets — Jeremiah Fears of Oklahoma and Kon Knueppel have been in. Both talked at the Combine about planning to work out for Sean Marks & co.
What we saw and heard Friday was that two players who have been mocked to the Nets by one media mock draft or another had been Thursday. In this case, it was the players themselves who disclosed it.
Erik Slater reported that Tennessee sharpshooter Chaz Lanier worked for the Nets on Thursday. Brian Lewis corroborated that report, adding that Brooklyn had five other prospects in for visits, including another shooting guard of note, Nique Clifford, from Colorado State. Lanier on the strength of a big showing at the Draft Combine has moved up draft boards and sits near the Nets second round pick. Clifford, an all-around prospect with some 3-and-D suggestions, is regularly listed in media mocks in the late teens. Both are among the oldest prospects in the Draft at 23 years old. (That’s two and a half years older than Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney, still 20.)
Lanier looks like one of the draft’s better 3-point shooting prospects, being a career 40.2% shooter at the collegiate level. In his fifth year or eligibility, which he spent at Tennessee alongside Mashack, he shot 39.5% from range on 8.2 attempts per game. His 123 made triples broke a school record for the most made in a single season.
He’s a deadeye. He knows it too — expressing that and more to Lewis and The Post.
“I believe I’m the best shooter in the draft,” Lanier told Lewis. “But [also] a competitor, a winner, somebody who wants to win and is going to bring the best effort to the team...I really admire the way coach Jordi Fernández really runs the organization. The culture is amazing. Being able to meet with everybody and all the staff, getting to meet some of the players you can tell everybody’s bought into the culture. It’s not about ‘me,’ it’s about ‘we.’ And I really admire that about what coach is building.”
While he and Tennessee Jahmai Mashack might have a larger following thanks to their collective five years spent in Knoxville under an SEC spotlight that’s never been brighter, Clifford is the higher touted prospect.
Like Lanier a super senior, Clifford averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 boards, 4.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game in his fifth and final year as a Ram. He also posted considerable 50/38 splits.
But most importantly, Clifford possesses the highly sought-after “NBA ready” frame, stretching out as a guard to 6’7” and with a reported 6’8” wingspan. Other pro intangibles such as the ability to create his own look, make interior passes, and put pressure on the rim are also all visible across his college reel.
Nique Clifford's college career ended with a strong NCAA tournament, dropping 35 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists in two games against high-level competition. Though his jumper wasn't falling, Clifford demonstrated the myriad ways he impacts winning on both ends. pic.twitter.com/vvQ9PwVR5d
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) March 25, 2025
Other than Fears and Knueppel, possibilities for the No. 8 mid-lottery pick, Clifford, someone who could be available at No. 19 and Lanier, similarly near the Nets pick at No. 36, only another 11 prospects are named in the Hoopshype tracker. Only two others are seen as possible selections and both of them are late second round: Wake Forest shooting guard Hunter Smalls and West Virginia point guard Javon Small.
In fact, three of the players the Nets have had in already dropped out of the draft since working out in Brooklyn. A couple of local players — St. John’s 6’7” small forward Aaron Scott and Temple’s 6’10” shooting guard Steve Settle — have also been in.
The workouts provide the front office with data that could be useful beyond the June 25-26 Draft. The team has to fill three two-way slots plus summer league, training camp and Long Island Nets rosters. (Tosan Evbuomwan and Tyson Etienne both have non-guaranteed two-way deals.)
Neither the Nets nor any NBA teams will be able to work out three top prospects regularly linked to them. Jonathan Givony of ESPN reported in his latest Top 100 Big Board that Noa Essnengue the 6’10” French power forward, his German league teammate 6’6” Israeli point guard Ben Saraf, and 6’6” Spanish wing Hugo Gonzalez will all be playing in European competitions right up to Draft Night. That means they will not afforded the opportunity to come to the U.S. for individual workouts.
We’ll regularly update the list as we come across reports of who’s been in.