The Brooklyn Nets have announced a surprise injury update for one of their many, many rookies.
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Brooklyn made league history when it selected a whopping five players in the first round of this summer’s 2025 NBA Draft.
Now, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (via Substack) reports that one member of the new crop — combo guard Ben Saraf —sprained his left ankle while putting in work with the Nets’ G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets.
Saraf is expected to be sidelined for at least the next 10 days.
Across four games with Long Island (just one start), Saraf has been averaging 14.3 points on .465/.286/.778 shooting splits, 3.5 dimes, 3.3 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks per.
The 6-foot-6 pro, selected with the No. 26 pick in June, has appeared in just seven games for Brooklyn proper, starting five. At the NBA level, he’s been averaging 3.3 points on abysmal .259/.231/.750 shooting splits, plus 2.4 assists and 1.9 rebounds.
The Nets are in a race to the bottom of the Eastern Conference for the third straight season.
At 2-11, their paltry play so far is only a hair better than the output of the 1-12 Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards.
With what’s expected to be a stacked 2026 NBA Draft class waiting for all these clubs next summer, it behooves Brooklyn to rest players frequently and let their very raw young pieces play through mistakes as they develop. The Nets are not playing for the present, after all.
Alex Kirschenbaum is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He grew up a devout Bulls fan, but his hoops fanaticism now extends to non-Bulls teams in adulthood. Currently also a scribe for Hoops Rumors, Sports Illustrated’s On SI fan sites Newsweek and “Small Soldiers” director Joe Dante’s film site Trailers From Hell, Alex is an alum of Men’s Journal, Grizzlies fan site Grizzly Bear Blues and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain’t Easy, among others