1. Sean Kilpatrick
It’s easy to have not noticed Sean Kilpatrick’s meteoric rise from obscurity into the Nets rotation. The team has been pretty bad since he was signed to a 10-day contract in March, 2016.
Kilpatrick could flat out ball though.
The Cincinatti product has gone from undrafted and unheralded to a key rotation piece for Kenny Atkinson’s offense. Kilpatrick was the team’s best bench player and his 13 points per game trailed only Lin and Lopez for the team’s scoring leaders.
Kilpatrick quietly had a shooting slash line of 46/34/84. For a player in his first full season playing regular rotation minutes that is extremely impressive.
The best part about Kilpatrick is that he is seemingly only getting better. At 27 years old, he is a late bloomer the same way Jonathon Simmons is. Kilpatrick actually has superior tools to Simmons though, who just received a deal worth $20 million from the Magic.
If Kilpatrick continues to put up impressive numbers and the Nets falter, the team could see what assets it can receive for the fourth year player who has clawed his way from the D-League to the Association.
Next: Jeremy Lin: no pressure on Nets next season
Owning Kilpatrick’s bird rights may come in handy for a team that is hard-capped but would be able to retain him next offseason. His $1.5 million salary is the furthest thing from a burden and under the right system, Kilpatrick may stand to get even better.
If the Nets could get a late first rounder for Bojan Bogdanovic, it may be able to coax someone to give one up for the emerging Kilpatrick.