It was a month ago Wednesday that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov fired Lionel Hollins and demoted Billy King in a housecleaning that reshaped the future of his club. When Prokhorov met the media the next day, he pointed — twice — to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Chris McCullough and Markel Brown as building blocks for that future.
Now, with the All-Star break looming, McCullough and Brown are giving Nets fans who suffered through a tough first half of the season something to look forward to in the second.
“I was not aware of it,’’ Brown said. “[Twice?] Really? That’s even better. It means a lot to hear it from the owner himself, mentioning me with the young guys. Hopefully in years to come me, Chris and Rondae are able to do big things here.”
They had better. The Nets (14-39) are broken, and they don’t have control over their own natural first-round picks until 2019, it’s going to be all but impossible for them to rebuild through the draft.
They’re going to have to show enough on the court the rest of the season to not scare off free agents they’ll court this summer. And that means the youth will have to step up to complement Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young.
Enter McCullough and Brown.
The Nets took the long view on McCullough, who tore his ACL as a Syracuse freshman and fell in the draft. The Nets scooped him up 29th overall, viewing him as their 2016 lottery pick. And after a long, arduous rehab, he finally made his highly anticipated NBA debut in Monday’s dramatic win over Denver.
“Well, you guys talked about it for a week, so I think it was played up pretty good, again,’’ interim coach Tony Brown said with a laugh.
“My mama said one thing to me. She said: ‘Think about it like this: 17 games ago you played a high school game,’ ” said McCullough, who turned 21 on Friday and has been awaited feverishly by fans. “So that kind of messed me up in the head. Seventeen games ago, I was in high school. That’s crazy.
“Twitter, Instagram, everyone’s writing me. When they called my name, I got a standing ovation, so I feel great here.’’
With two points, two rebounds, a block, an assist and an ovation, it was just the first taste of what the first-round pick can provide.
Brown, 24, has flown under the radar, but played his way into the picture of late. He had been buried on the end of Hollins’ bench, essentially persona non grata until the coach gave him a surprise start Jan. 9 in Detroit. Hollins was fired the next morning, but Brown has worked his way into Tony Brown’s rotation.
“It’s very frustrating, especially watching from the sideline and in your mind you’re thinking, ‘Dang, if I’m out there I could probably help the team do this and do that,’ ’’ Brown said. “So it’s very frustrating. But it’s a different story when you get out there because you have to actually show what you can do.”
He has done that, backing up his 15 points Saturday with a career-high 19 Monday, only the second time he ever had consecutive double-digit scoring games.
Brown has shot 68.2 percent this month, 66.7 from deep and 92.3 from the free-throw line. He’s averaging 9.2 points in his past five games, up from 3.4 for the season.
The key?
“Confidence,” said Brown, a restricted free agent who was coming to the practice facility at 7 a.m. and putting up 500 shots. “My whole life, I’ve been known as a scorer, and to get here and be known as a defender — I mean, there’s nothing wrong with that — but [I’m] wanting to get back to that stage.”