Brooklyn Nets: Milton Doyle faces uphill climb in free agency

Brooklyn Nets guard Milton Doyle didn’t get a lot of opportunities on his two-way contract last season and faces stiff competition in a crowded backcourt.

Milton Doyle initially came to the Brooklyn Nets as an undrafted free agent out of Loyola of Chicago in the summer of 2017 after playing well for the Nets in Summer League action.

But Doyle didn’t survive the cut in training camp and wound up with the Long Island Nets in the G-League.

The 24-year-old Chicago native did well enough in Uniondale to remain on the Brooklyn Nets’ radar and he was signed to a two-way contract in December 2017.

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Doyle didn’t get a lot of opportunities with the parent club and, when he did, he didn’t do a lot to capitalize — when you’re a volume shooter from 3-point range and only hit 17 percent of your shots, it’s hard to look terrific.

Doyle played in 10 games for Brooklyn, averaging 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 12.5 minutes per game on a staggeringly poor slash line of .277/.174/.500.

There’s no question he knows how to score.

Doyle put up 20.5 points a game for Long Island in the G-League, shooting .418/.371/.778 while averaging 35.4 minutes a game, also logging 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists a night.

Doyle will be a restricted free agent come July 1 and it’s tough to see how he fits on the 2018-19 roster with Caris LeVert, Allen Crabbe and DeMarre Carroll all coming back to man the wing spots on guaranteed deals and with the Nets likely to spare no expense in retaining unrestricted free agent Joe Harris.

Throw in combo forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and guards flexible enough to swing between the 1 and 2 in D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie along with the Nets needing to make a decision on Isaiah Whitehead‘s third-year option and that’s a long line of players that would appear to be in front of Doyle.

All that said, it would be unfair to completely write Doyle off because he shot poorly in a very small sample size. He got a decent amount of burn in Brooklyn’s final two games of the season, logging a very solid 3-for-4 night, including 2-of-3 from deep, against the Chicago Bulls on April 9.

But he followed that up on April 11 with a clunker in Boston, where he was only 2-for-11 and missed all five of his 3-point attempts in 25 minutes.

Still, there is potential there. Doyle hung 42 points on Feb. 6 against Raptors 905, which ended up in the G-League Finals for the second straight year:

If the Nets do offer to bring Doyle back, it would likely be on a one-year minimum deal with no guarantees. Otherwise, Brooklyn likely would opt not to match any other offer Doyle may receive this summer.

It would be ideal, however, if they could manage to keep him and let him get another year of development at Long Island in 2018-19.

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He’s definitely got potential, but needs time to adapt his play and his body. Doyle is listed at 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, some additional bulk could be — pardon the pun — big for his NBA future.