Kobe Bufkin is 21 (through Saturday) with only 27 games experience but one veteran NBA analyst thinks Nets may have gotten a steal in the 6’4” combo guard.
Kobe Bufkin turns 22 Sunday, making him the eighth youngest Net going into 2025-26. Only the Flatbush 5, Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney are younger. He was also the product of the fourth (and final?) Sean Marks summer salary dumps having been secured for the minimum cost of the $110,000 in cash considerations. There were no picks attached unlike the three other dumps.
Primarily seen as a point guard but capable of playing off the ball as well, the 15th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft has little resume to base any rational prediction. He’s only played 27 games in two years, the result of injuries in both of his first two seasons.
But Sam Vecenie of The Athletic thinks Brooklyn got a bargain and even a “home run” in the Michigan product (who was schooled by Juwan Howard, then Wolverines head coach and now a Nets assistant.)
“This is a home run for the Nets. You absolutely take on Kobe Bufkin’s $4.5 million this year, and I think you opt into the option at $6.9 [million] next year, and you just say, ‘Hey, let’s see what it looks like,’” Vecenie said on The Game Theory Podcast, as first reported by Erik Slater of Clutch Points Saturday.
“In terms of his game, I really like the feel for the game. I buy him as a shooter long-term. I think he plays a very direct game, makes very quick decisions, likes to drive in straight lines. I think he’s one of those dudes that always profiled to me as somebody who plays really well both on and off the ball.
“That ability to shift where you can be the 6’4” point guard next to a star or you can be the off-guard playing next to a primary point guard. That was kind of my vision for him as a player, and I thought he would play really well next to stars because of how well-rounded that game was. Whether or not that bears itself out, we’ll find out. But home run for the Nets to go for it. I think that he’s worth a flier for them.”
Indeed, despite his relative youth and inexperience, the 6’4” guard is likely to get his chances in Brooklyn which currently have only three 19-year-olds who play the point: Egor Demin, Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf.
Also, Marks and co. will a maximum of seven games – four preseason and three in regular season – to gauge long-term value. Brooklyn must decide by October 31 whether to extend him (as well as Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney) through 2026-27, the $6.9 million investment that Vecenie mentioned.
He played well this Summer in Las Vegas for the Hawks in his first fully healthy tour with Atlanta.
Bufkin averaged 19.5 points – with a high game of 29; 5.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists and a steal for Atlanta across four appearances. That 19.5 point scoring average was eighth in Summer League. He still has work to do on his 3-point shooting, never hitting 30% in either his limited time in RJ’s NBA or Summer League.
The Nets have not said anything about how they see his told but it certainly appears that they have plans.
Category: General Sports
