Sean Kilpatrick: The Best NBA Player You've Never Heard Of
Since joining the Brooklyn Nets last season, Sean Kilpatrick is proving himself as a legitimate scoring option and rising star. Why haven’t fans taken notice?
Unless you’re one of the few fans outside of New York that still follows the Brooklyn Nets, you probably haven’t heard of Sean Kilpatrick. In fact, most casual fans don’t know many players on the Nets.
After chasing an Eastern Conference title at the start of the decade, Brooklyn has fallen into NBA obscurity. Once boasting a roster with potential Hall of Fame talent, the Nets are now smack dab in the middle of a rebuild.
This offseason, Brooklyn made minor waves by bringing Jeremy Lin back to the Empire State. The move was supposedly the first step towards making the team relevant again, a Hail Mary that hasn’t worked out so far.
Lin has only appeared in nine contests and Brooklyn is only a half game ahead of the woeful Philadelphia 76ers.
If you dig deep, behind the 20 losses and 30th-ranked defense, you find a diamond in the rough with Kilpatrick. The third-year veteran is what basketball people call a “project.” His 6’4″ frame is too small by NBA wing standards and he had a low ceiling coming out of college.
The numbers he produced at the University of Cincinnati were impressive, averaging more than 20 points per game in his senior season. Despite his gaudy stats, it was unclear whether he would be able to handle the transition to a smaller role at the professional level.
He went undrafted in 2014 and spent most of his first season in the D-League.
What scouts can’t predict is how well a player can perform if he lands in the right system. We see cases like this all the time.
Hassan Whiteside was an afterthought before joining the Miami Heat and Isaiah Thomas was a role player with the Sacramento Kings before finding a home with the Boston Celtics.
Sean Kilpatrick is proving his critics wrong so far and has become an asset for the Brooklyn Nets.
From D-League Obscurity To Roster Security
After 12 uneventful games with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets, Sean Kilpatrick was given another opportunity. Despite only scoring 49 points in his career, the Brooklyn Nets signed him to a 10-day contract toward the end of the 2015-16 season.
Short on bodies, Kilpatrick was immediately handed a heavy workload with Brooklyn. By the end of his initial contract, he had already scored 47 points and received a second 10-day contract. The second 10-day span proved better than the first, averaging 15 points per game over five games.
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Although he was coming off the bench, Kilpatrick provided a much-needed scoring option for a Nets team lacking offense.
On March 19, the Nets locked in a multi-year deal with Kilpatrick. He finished the year with 19 double-digit scoring performances in just 23 games.
Coming into this season, the Nets had penciled Kilpatrick in as a key reserve player. Through the teams first seven games, the Cincinnati product averaged more than 16 points per game off the bench.
Everything changed when starting point guard Jeremy Lin went down with an injury early in the year. For the first time in his NBA career, Kilpatrick would hear his name announced with the starting lineup.
What transpired next was Jeremy Lin-esque. A career reserve exploding onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere. Over the Nets’ next four victories with Kilpatrick as a starter, he averaged more than 25 points per game.
Even when Lin returned from injury, Kilpatrick kept his starting role. He is now a fixture in the Brooklyn Nets lineup, routinely playing more than 30 minutes per game.
His signature moment came in a double-overtime victory versus the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 29. The Nets entered the final frame down by 13 and it was Kilpatrick who brought them all the way back.
He scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, en route to a career-high 38. The most telling anecdote from the game was Kilpatrick’s performance in the second overtime period. He outscored the entire Clippers team, capped off by bucket with 14 seconds left that put the game out of reach.
1st Net to register 38+ points and 14+ rebounds in the same game since Vince Carter? @SeanKilpatrick #BrooklynGrit pic.twitter.com/Hjl3Tl478w
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 30, 2016
Brooklyn, Moving Forward
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Brooklyn Nets fans don’t have a lot to cheer about. Kilpatrick is one of the few bright spots in a season marred by injury and mounting losses. His style of play embodies Brooklyn as a city and he has become a fan favorite at the Barclays Center.
Although he’s not a household name yet, Sean Kilpatrick is well on his way to a promising career. With free-agent contracts growing each season, he should also be in line for a hefty payday in the near future.
First-year head coach Kenny Atkinson has a long road to building a true contender, but Kilpatrick is certainly a guy they can build around.
The 2016-17 Nets will most likely finish in the bottom five when the season ends. In most cases, their final record would be bittersweet because of the potential lottery pick on the horizon.
Having said that, Brooklyn’s rebuild will be delayed even longer as the Celtics will most likely be picking in the Nets spot come NBA Draft night in 2017.
If the Nets can keep finding hidden gems like Kilpatrick, maybe their loss of draft picks won’t hurt as much.
