Brooklyn Nets: Euro stash Isaia Cordinier eyes NBA leap

Isaia Cordinier, the French wing acquired by the Brooklyn Nets last summer in the Jeremy Lin trade, would like to make the jump to the NBA next season.

Isaia Cordinier was considered nothing more than a throw-in as part of last July’s trade in which the Brooklyn Nets shed Jeremy Lin‘s salary and gave up a second-round pick in 2025 and swap rights to a 2023 second-rounder.

At the time, the future of the 6-foot-4 French guard was in some doubt after he had missed the entire 2017-18 season after having surgery on both knees to try and correct some tendinitis issues that had been plaguing him.

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Cordinier has had a solid bounce-back season with French club Antibes in the Jeep Elite league, the top-tier circuit in France.

In 27 games, 19 of them starts, Cordinier has averaged 10.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals in 25.2 minutes per game. He’s shot 49 percent overall — the best mark of his six pro seasons — and 36.1 percent on 2.7 3-point attempts per game.

But as the 22-year-old gets further removed from surgery, his play is getting stronger. Over his last 10 games with Antibes, per RealGM, Cordinier has averaged 15.7 points on 53.1 percent shooting and has hit a solid 43.2 percent from deep on 3.7 attempts an outing.

It’s been a rough year for Antibes, which is just 6-26 with two games remaining in its domestic season and will be relegated to the second-tier French Pro B circuit for the 2019-20 season.

But Cordinier has his eyes on a move to the U.S. next season, telling French basketball site BeBasket that his goal for next season is to land one of Brooklyn ‘s two two-way contracts so he can get the opportunity to play for the Long Island Nets while growing with Brooklyn’s player development team.

Cordinier told the website that the Nets have taken an interest in him, monitoring his progress.

He was a second-round pick by the Hawks in 2016 and played for Atlanta’s entry in the Las Vegas Summer League in both 2016 and 2017, but struggled each year.

In 2016, Cordinier played in five games for the Hawks in Vegas, averaging 3.2 points in 16.6 minutes per game and shooting just 5-for-20 (25 percent) overall) and 2-for-8 from long range (25 percent).

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In 2017, he put up 4.3 points in 14.3 minutes a contest, shooting 6-for-20 overall (30 percent) and hitting 2-of-6, 33.3 percent, from behind the arc.