DALLAS — Out of Brooklyn’s record five first-round picks, four have been in the rotation for the past couple of weeks.
Now Nolan Traore — the forgotten Frenchman — has been recalled from the G-League. The teenaged point guard earned his call-up with his recent play down in Long Island, and will travel with the Nets for Friday’s game in Dallas.
“He deserves [it]. He’s played well. … We’re very happy with where he’s at,” coach Jordi Fernández said. “[He’s improved] on both ends. He’s done very good things. He’s fast, very good athlete. His body will keep developing and he’ll keep getting stronger. But his intentions have been great, his ball pressure’s been good, his activity, understanding schemes. So, one step at a time. We’re seeing progression.”
Traore — pegged as one of the fastest players in the draft — has logged just 36 minutes in four cameos, none since Nov. 18.
But the point guard has averaged 18.8 points on .489/.431/.774 splits with 6.4 assists for Long Island, albeit with 3.5 turnovers.
“It’s been a long time. So I’m just happy to be back in Brooklyn, and I’m ready to play,” Traore said. “I think I progressed in all aspects of the game, mostly the shooting was good. And just getting to play, and play live is great too.”
Shooting was one of several holes in Traore’s game, along with defense, size, vocal leadership, turnovers and how he responded to those gaffes.
But in the past four games, Traore averaged 23.3 points on 63.6 percent shooting with 32 assists. Most encouraging, he had just six turnovers and hit 10-for-14 from deep, improvement not in mechanics but confidence.
“His superpower is speed. He’s been shooting the ball very well and confident, which I love. He’s been trying to be more vocal. That’s what you want point guards to be,” Fernández said. “Then the assist-to-turnover, he struggled with turnovers at times and how he reacted to those turnovers. I don’t care as long as you move on to the next play — and he’s had impressive numbers with assist-turnover ratio in the last three or four games. So, very happy to see that.”
Traore had 18 points, eight assists and no turnovers in Wednesday’s win over the Westchester Knicks with Fernández watching. But Traore made strides in not getting down after mistakes.
“It’s about you don’t have to waste time on a bad play. You just have to keep going and be ready to play the next play. So, yeah, you just got to be focused and get to the next play faster,” said Traore, who is also becoming more vocal.
“I’m more of a leader by example, but when I’m in a good position in the team, I talk more because you’ve got to talk about the play that happened, the play that’s going to happen. When you play more, you talk more, and when you have a bigger role and a bigger impact on the team, you have to be more vocal for sure.”
Michael Porter Jr.’s brother, Jontay, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, had his sentencing pushed back from Dec. 10 to Dec. 18.
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