Latest news with #SCOUT
USA Today
5 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
SCOUT shows how Nets asst. GM BJ Johnson began his basketball dream
SCOUT shows how Nets asst. GM BJ Johnson began his basketball dream The Brooklyn Nets have four first-round picks to use in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft and from now until June, they will have to figure out the best players to select. Brooklyn has been giving fans a behind-the-scenes look into what the scouting process has looked like with their SCOUT series and episode two is giving a glimpse into one of the key figures in the scouting process. "My hope was to always walk on at Villanova because that was the school I really wanted to be at. When it was time for tryouts, they couldn't find my name, they couldn't find my paperwork," Nets assistant general manager BJ Johnson said of his time at Villanova. Johnson tried to walk on at the school, but it seemed like the team didn't want him until things suddenly changed. "I remember after our women's (basketball) practice, I would have to run the stairs in the pavilion. I saw the men's team coming out to practice and I see them pointing up to us, like, oh, they're gonna kick me out of practice," Johnson continued. "They tell me to come downstairs. They invited me to be on the men's team. At that point, no tryout, nothing. It was just like that." Johnson, who played for legendary Villanova head coach Jay Wright, was able to make the Villanova basketball team as a walk-on after being cut from the team after tryouts during his freshman season. Johnson went on to play three seasons at Villanova before graduating with a bachelor's degree in computer science and a minor in Chinese prior to beginning his post-playing basketball career with USA Basketball in 2005. "I tried out my freshman year, but I got cut. I was really disappointed because I worked so hard and I thought I was going to make it. But it wasn't the right time for me. Looking back, it really was the best thing that could have happened to me. Because it gave me the chance to meet a lot of people and get involved in a number of different activities," Johnson said in 2002 in an interview with Villanova's newspaper.
The Hindu
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Six students visit South Korea under Naan Mudhalvan scheme
Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Tuesday (May 27, 2025) felicitated six students who benefitted from the Naan Mudhalvan scheme of the State government. Under Naan Mudhalvan's SCOUT (Scholarships for Outstanding Undergraduate Talent in Tamil Nadu) programme, these students visited South Korea and underwent training at Gachon University and Pusan National University. SCOUT aims to provide talented undergraduate students from Tamil Nadu with international exposure and advanced skills in emerging fields like data science, AI, and biotechnology.
USA Today
20-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nets will approach 2025 NBA Draft with flexibility and an open mind
Nets will approach 2025 NBA Draft with flexibility and an open mind The Brooklyn Nets head into the 2025 NBA Draft with four first-round picks that they could potentially use to bring plenty of young talent to the team for the 2025-26 season. Brooklyn did not get the outcome they were hoping for as they ended up with the eighth overall pick in the Draft, but the front office is confident in being able to find impact players in this class. "This year's draft is going to have foundational players at the top, but also the depth of the draft and the versatility of the players in the draft gives us a lot of excitement that we can find a lot of good players for us to move forward with," Nets assistant general manager BJ Johnson during Episode one of "SCOUT." SCOUT is a project put on by Brooklyn's content team to show the process that the team is using leading up to the Draft. "The draft is so unpredictable. You never know what's going to happen. Picks get traded, players get traded," Johnson continued. "Situations change constantly so you have to approach the draft the exact same way: gathering all the intel, being able to understand who a player is for your organization. A case study for us was this past year's draft, where we didn't have a pick." Even though the cream of the crop for this Draft is Duke forward Cooper Flagg, teams like the Nets will have to figure out how to work around that if they are going to have a productive time. It seems that most mock drafts are projecting Brooklyn to take Duke forward Kon Knueppel with the eighth overall pick, a player that is considered a "safe" pick by Flagg. Knueppel doesn't have the upside of someone like Flagg, but as Johnson said, nobody ever knows what's going to happen in or after a draft until some time passes. With reports that the Nets are expected by other teams to attempt to trade up in the Draft, Brooklyn will have to keep all options open as they head into one of the biggest summers in recent franchise history.
New York Post
13-05-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Nets get No. 8 pick in missed opportunity at 2025 NBA Draft Lottery
The Nets' first lottery pick in 15 years will be a disappointing one, falling to eighth on Monday night's 2025 NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago. When Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks and team governor Joe Tsai pivoted and made the tough decision to tank this season for a high draft pick, it ended up giving them the sixth-best odds. Advertisement They had a 9 percent chance of winning and being able to start their rebuild around Cooper Flagg. But it didn't happen, falling to eighth. It was the second-likeliest outcome for the Nets at 20.6, behind only seventh (at 29.7). But considering what it cost them, it will be a bitter outcome. Advertisement Brooklyn sent multiple first-round picks (acquired from Phoenix in the Kevin Durant trade) to Houston to re-acquire their own first-rounders this year and next. 3 The Brooklyn Nets got the 8th overall pick during the 2025 Draft Lottery on May 12, 2025 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. NBAE via Getty Images That enabled them to move Mikal Bridges, tank and rebuild through the draft. But after suffering through a 26-56 campaign, Flagg was the prize, and at least finishing in the top four was a goal. Advertisement The Nets got neither. This selection — presuming the Nets don't trade it away in a package for a veteran star — will mark the first lottery pick they'll actually have since 2010. That season, they tanked their way to a league-worst 12-70 mark in hopes of getting John Wall, but ended up falling to third and having to settle for Derrick Favors. Advertisement First-year head coach Jordi Fernandez represented the team on the dais on Monday night, having said before departing for Chicago: 'We're just ready to be lucky.' 3 Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández reacts on the court in the first period at Madison Square Garden, Thursday, April 10, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST That luck ran out, though. As it usually does around lottery time. It's hard to find a team that has suffered more in the lottery than the Nets, both in Brooklyn and their prior New Jersey iteration. Both have lottery heartache, usually of their own making by trading away picks that eventually came good. The last half-dozen times that the Nets' pick ended up in the lottery, they all went to another team. Advertisement Damian Lillard (sixth in 2012), Jaylen Brown (third in 2016) and Jayson Tatum (third in 2017) all went elsewhere. They even saw last year's pick jump up to third, but it was owed to Houston, who took Reed Sheppard. 3 Nets GM Sean Marks addresses the media at the Brooklyn Nets HSS Training Center in Brooklyn, New York, USA, Monday, April 14, 2025. JASON SZENES/ NY POST Monday night was a chance to turn all that misfortune around. Advertisement The Nets have the most future draft picks (31) and first-rounders (15) over the next seven years, including a league-high four in the first round next month. 'This ain't coming around again,' Marks said in a documentary series, 'SCOUT,' released by the team. 'This happens once.' Brooklyn landing eighth will hurt any potential package they have to offer for Giannis Antetokounmpo. They do have the most first-rounders (15) over the next seven years, 13 of them tradable. Advertisement Dallas won the lottery, defying the odds. They had just a 1.8 percent chance of landing Flagg, the fourth-lowest of any winner in history. After trading away Luka Doncic in a wildly unpopular move, it offers the Mavericks a stunning opportunity to flip the narrative. Advertisement The Spurs vaulted up to No. 2. It gives them a chance to take Rutgers star Dylan Harper or further ammunition, along with the No. 14 pick, to package and bid for Antetokounmpo.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Nets are in unique position heading into 2025 NBA offseason
Nets are in unique position heading into 2025 NBA offseason The Brooklyn Nets are coming off a disappointing 2024-25 NBA season in which they finished with a lowly 26-56 record, giving them the sixth-worst record in the league at the conclusion of the regular season. While Brooklyn was hoping for a better season despite this year being the first in what is hopefully a short rebuild, they are in a unique situation heading into the offseason. "We are in a unique situation as an organization. We've had a chance to compete at a really, really high level and we're a toenail away from a championship potentially," BJ Johnson, Nets assistant general manager, said during Episode one of the team's "SCOUT" series heading into the 2025 NBA Draft. Johnson has been with the franchise since August of 2016 when he was hired as the player development coordinator under general manager Sean Marks. "Now, we're on the backside of that, and now, we can rebuild," Johnson continued. "We can rebuild in a way that highlights Brooklyn and our culture and our organization and the city that always set the foundation for us. Just understanding what the people of Brooklyn are all about." Johnson has been one of the main guys that have assisted in draft preparation for the Nets for the past few years and Marks has spoken before about how important Johnson is to the entire operation when it comes to scouting players. With four first-round picks to use in the upcoming draft, Johnson and the rest of the scouting department will have their hands full with what looks to be a huge opportunity for Brooklyn to get some young, high-upside talent. Head coach Jordi Fernandez gave his take during the episode of what he is looking for in the players that the team drafts moving forward and it seems like he and the rest of the franchise are on the same page. "Right now, our job is to figure out who's going to be the next Net. You guys asked me if we go and scout, what type of player we're scouting. We want good dudes here. The players that are always on winning teams, there's a reason why," Fernandez said.
