No big surprises on Long Island Nets training camp roster

The Long Island Nets released their training camp roster on Monday and there was no surprises ... just a large number of rookies from the 2021 NBA Draft class.

In addition to the team’s two first round picks — Cam Thomas (LSU) and Day’Ron Sharpe (North Carolina), the camp includes the Nets two two-way players — David Duke (Providence) and Kessler Edwards (Pepperdine), Brooklyn’s two late round picks, Marcus Zegarowski (Creighton) and RaiQuan Gray (Florida State) as well as Summer Leaguer Brandan Rachal (Tulsa) and local tryout Nojel Eastern (Purdue and Howard.) That’s eight in all who declared for July’s Draft.

The roster also has seven G League veterans, including three GM Matt Riccardi traded for in the off-season and another he drafted. There also three local tryout players, including Eastern, in camp, which opened Monday in Westbury, Long Island, at the Yes We Can Community Center.

Here’s the complete roster...

This will be the Adam Caporn’s first as head coach. The highly respected Caporn comes to Long Island from Australia where, among other things, he was an assistant coach on Australia’s bronze medal winning Olympic team and director of Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence.

Karl Trounson, who was strength and conditioning coach for Australian team during Olympics, will be joining Long Island in the same role. He is the fourth Aussie to work with the Nets organization in a performance capacity.

Also joining the organization is Ben Strong, the new Head Video Coordinator / Player Development. He had previously worked for the 76ers and Suns. At 6’11”, Strong can be expected to work with the roster’s multiple bigs including Sharpe and Gray.

Sharpe and Thomas spent Monday afternoon in training camp with Long Island, then were recalled Monday night for Brooklyn’s game vs. Washington, getting garbage time minutes in the big team’s win. Expect a lot of that this season.

How good can they be? Dakota Schmidt of Ridiculous Upside thinks they could be very good.

The Long Island Nets will officially tip off the 2021-22 season on the road on Saturday, November. 6, against the Delaware Blue Coats. Long Island will then host the Capital City Go-Go in the team’s home opener four days later at Nassau Coliseum.

• The Nets’ G League roster includes Creighton’s Marcus Zegarowski, Providence’s David Duke, Florida’s Chris Walker and Howard’s Nojel Eastern - Adam Zagoria - Zags’ Blog