Royce O’Neale goes from afterthought to fan favorite

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty ImagesLiterally moments before news broke on June 30 that Kevin Durant had requested a trade (and that the Nets were willing to accommodate him!), Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that the Nets had sent the worse of their two picks in the 2023 Draft to Utah for Royce O’Neale, a 6’7” 3-and-D candidate, using most of a trade exception generated by the James Harden trade.

And (other than Brian Windhorst,) no one cared. KD was gone. Kyrie probably too. O’Neale, who went by the nickname Rolls, was a nice player and all that, but so what? An ugly rebuild was staring us down.

Fast forward a few months and Durant and Irving are still on the roster and now…