Brooklyn Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. played a season-high 28 minutes during Tuesday's 125-124 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics. That's notable because the No. 6 pick opened the year on a minutes restriction that has kept him out of Brooklyn's starting lineup.
Does his workload Tuesday mean his minutes limit has risen enough for him to be in the running to enter the starting unit?
“Right now, we're building him up, and if you look at the schedule, we have two days in between [games]. So when you play this amount of minutes, you get assessed. Assessed is how you feel, everything,” said head coach Jordi Fernandez. “Then you have 48 hours, and then you play another game. And when he does it for the weeks that we have planned, which I'm not going to share with you guys, and we feel like he's strong enough and he's gone through it and that his body can assimilate all the load, [then he'll be off the minutes limit]. This was one game. He played more because we're confident that with the rest he has [upcoming]. So that's where we are. And right now it's the fourth game.
So [he won't be off the limit] anytime soon because I want to load him with minutes and have him feeling good. Also, there's no minutes given to him. That's something that I also want to say. If he's not doing what he's supposed to, then that goes for [him and] everybody else. But he knows it, and he's done a great job. That's why he's played all his minutes.”
Fernandez previously said Brown's minutes limit will need to reach 24 before he's comfortable starting him.
Nets keeping Mikel Brown Jr. on minutes limit after rookie logs season-high in Boston
Brown showed star flashes during his 28 minutes on Tuesday at TD Garden. After missing his first six shots, the 6-foot-4 guard scored 13 fourth-quarter points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from three. That included a fading three in the final seconds to send the game to overtime.
Nets rookie Mikel Brown Jr. 17 PTS (all in 4th/OT), 5 AST, 5 REB vs. Celtics
Roller coaster of a game to say the least pic.twitter.com/xsI489gDMe
— Role Player Performances (@BenchHighlights) October 28, 2026
However, Brown's decision to attempt a layup with the Nets up by one in the final seconds of overtime, rather than pull the ball out, proved costly. Jayson Tatum drained a game-winning buzzer-beater on the final possession.
Despite his late-game gaffe, Brown's performance while shouldering his most expansive workload to date was encouraging. How did the rookie feel physically coming out of the game?
Article Continues Below“I feel great. I just can't make those mistakes,” he said.
The Nets replaced Keon Ellis with sophomore Nolan Traore in their starting lineup alongside Egor Demin on Tuesday. Traore impressed during the loss, posting 15 points and three assists on 6-of-9 shooting in 24 minutes before cramping forced him out. The French floor general should remain in the starting unit until Brooklyn removes Brown's minutes restriction.
Meanwhile, Demin exited Tuesday with two minutes left in the first half due to a right leg contusion and did not return. Demin told ClutchPoints following the Nets' loss that the injury is “nothing serious” and that he thinks he'll be ready to go in a couple of days.
If Demin can't suit up on Friday vs. the Detroit Pistons, Ellis could return to Brooklyn's starting unit. The free agent signing has struggled to make an impact through four games, averaging 6.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) shooting from the field and 4-of-14 (28.6 percent) from three in 26.3 minutes per night.