The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 NBA Draft.The Brooklyn Nets selected Mike Brown Jr. with the No. 6 pick on Tuesday in the NBA Draft.What makes Brown so special is the potential combination of shooting and passing ability. He has an elite intersection of arguably the two most important skills in the modern NBA. As soon as he gets an outlet pass or grabs a rebound, he immediately gets his eyes up to look for early hit-aheads. He plays quickly and is accurate on his hit-aheads as he always seems to hit guys in stride. Brown plays a team-friendly game.His shot opens the rest of his game. At the FIBA Under-19 World Cup last summer, he shot 47.6 percent on 3-point shots (averaging six attempts per game). In six tracked games on Synergy for DME Academy, he shot 37 percent on more than 11 3-point attempts per game, many of which were of the completely absurd pull-up variety. Brown has no conscience when it comes to pulling up from distance.But a lack of strength permeates Brown’s game more than you’d hope. He came in at the combine at 190 pounds, but doesn’t really play that heavily and needs to fill out his frame with more muscle — that’s arguably his biggest area for improvement. Brown doesn’t have the power aspect to his game that a player needs to be successful in the highest-leverage moments right now. You see the lack of strength most in his defensive game. Brown is a poor defender and t ends to be contact-averse on defense. He can stay in front of his man because he has quick, fluid feet, but he isn’t strong enough to absorb contact through his chest on drives and tends to get pushed backward.Sam Vecenie’s draft guide summaryWhy Mikel Brown Jr. is one of the highest upside guards in the 2026 NBA DraftSam VecenieThe pitch with Brown is simple. In today’s NBA, there might not be a more important intersection of skills than shooting and passing ability. Brown has those skills in a big way. He’s a monster 3-point shooter who hits them at volume, and he is a tremendous live-dribble passer who reads the court well and makes good decisions while also being able to separate in ball screens. With those two skills alone, it sets him up for a tremendous amount of success.