The college basketball season ended on Monday. Next month the Nets rebuild starts in earnest, with the lottery — and clarity on just where they’ll be drafting.
The Nets have five picks in June’s NBA draft — four first-rounders and their own natural second — and after the Big Dance, mock drafts have been readjusted and rejiggered based on how the players performed and how the scouts assessed them.
They’ll change again, based on the draft combine, predraft workouts and of course front office misdirection.
But in the immediate aftermath of post-Final Four recalibration, some things are clear.
The most common projection for the Nets’ prized lottery selection is either Jeremiah Fears or Khaman Maluach, while the player most often mocked to them overall is Yaxel Lendeborg.
“We have a very important summer, as you know,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández understated before Tuesday’s 119-114 win against fellow lottery hopeful New Orleans. “We have four firsts and one second. We’re not going to know where the lottery is going to fall, because that’s part of the odds and so on and so forth. You can only control what you can control, and right now, that is what we know for sure.”
The all-important lottery is May 12 in Chicago, right in the middle of the draft combine.
The Nets could’ve clinched no worse than sixth in the lottery seedings with a loss Tuesday. If that’s where they finish, they’d have a 50.3 percent chance of drafting either seventh (29.8) or eighth (20.5), and 37.2 percent at landing in the top four.
All other outcomes would be long shots. And with that lottery pick, most mocks have them selecting either Maluach or Fears.
Maluach — a 7-foot-2, 250-pound defensive game-changer — was tabbed to go to Brooklyn by both Tankathon and SB Nation.
The freshman from Duke — who is from South Sudan, and could face deportation under President Donald Trump’s new policies — is just 18 and only started playing five years ago.
“It’s just a testament to his work. Everybody comes in, you’ve got guys with the big names at Duke where everybody’s [saying you’re] going to start and do this, do that. And for him to go in there and take what’s his, he went in there and it’s a testament to his work,” Nets wing Dariq Whitehead told The Post of his fellow Blue Devil product.
“He went in, put in the work and had a huge summer. … And he’s continuing to do so.”
Fears was tabbed to go sixth to the Nets by both ESPN and Bleacher Report.
He’s still just 18, but used his quickness and handle to average 17.1 points and 4.1 assists for Oklahoma, getting into the lane at will.
Point guard has been an issue since Kyrie Irving demanded a trade.
Fears has the potential to be that on-ball shot creator the Nets have lacked for years.
Arguably the draft’s top scorer, Texas guard Tre Johnson, was mocked to Brooklyn in that same spot by Yahoo.
The Nets have three more first-rounders, picks from the Bucks (currently 18th), Knicks (26th) and Houston (27th). All are fluid, but the latter pair can’t fall, and the Milwaukee selection is unlikely to dip.
Lendeborg is a rare senior, a 22-year-old from Pennsauken, N.J. But the power forward from UAB was hugely productive.
He can finish, pass and crash the boards, averaging 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists, hitting 35.7 percent from deep.
The 6-foot-9, 240-pounder was mocked to Brooklyn 26th by Tankathon and Bleacher Report, and 27th by ESPN.
“We have an important summer league with a lot of the guys that most likely will get drafted,” Fernández said. “Obviously the job to draft is [general manager] Sean [Marks] and his team. Obviously coaches will support and we’ll do whatever they need us to do, from opinions to work to watch film to do workouts. … We’ll be 100 percent available for them. We’ll try to help and we’ll support their job the same way when I coach I feel supported by them. When they have to pick, they’re gonna be supported by us.”
