NEW YORK — Despite averaging 13.1 points in just 25.1 minutes over 70 games last season, the Nets waived Sean Kilpatrick in December when they received Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas in the Trevor Booker trade.

“Absolutely,” Kilpatrick answered, without hesitation, when asked if the move surprised him. “And I’m pretty sure the coaches were surprised as well. When the news broke, my teammates, some of them cried. They were shocked. I’m very close with Rondae (Hollis-Jefferson) and he was hurt. Caris (LeVert) was hurt. The guys I was with from the get-go were hurt. But you have to move on in this league.”

Kilpatrick has done that, scoring 16 points Monday night to have his career-high-tying streak of three straight 20-point games snapped in the 114-105 loss to the Nets. Kilpatrick has scored so seemingly effortlessly that, depending on what the Bulls do in the draft, management could try to re-sign him.

“I’m just happy I’m a Bull now and just happy I get to continue playing the game that I love,” Kilpatrick said. “While I was here, I always did my job.”

His Nets stint wasn’t a total loss. Assistant coach Adam Harrington introduced him to Kevin Durant, with whom Harrington also worked in Oklahoma City. Kilpatrick and Durant hit it off so well that they spend time training together in Los Angeles in the offseason.

“(Durant’s) a very close friend of mine,” Kilpatrick said. “The best thing about training with him is you get to see different aspects of the game and how he works. That’s really inspiring for me. It’s pretty cool to have a guy like that in your back pocket you can talk to.”

Summer school:Teams can’t mandate offseason activity. But several Bulls have talked for weeks about spending at least a good portion of it training at the Advocate Center.

“Everybody understands the importance of spending time together,” coach Fred Hoiberg said.