Injuries make it hard to gauge Nets bench
The Nets are convinced they’ve gotten deeper. Their conviction may be put to the test this preseason.
Training camp is all about experimentation, testing and retesting to find the right lineups and rotations. But with Brooklyn missing five players for Wednesday’s preseason-opening home loss to the Knicks, that might easier said than done.
Starting power forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson still hasn’t had a single full practice since straining his left adductor two months ago, so his timeline is up in the air. With big men Kenneth Faried and Alan Williams both out with left ankle injuries, coach Kenny Atkinson is trying to fit a puzzle together with missing pieces.
“We obviously had a few guys out. That did limit us,” Atkinson said. “First game we were focused on understanding the minutes guys [could] play, so it was tough to mix-and-match … because you had guys that were going to have a set number. That’s on me. We didn’t really have a chance to play Ed [Davis] and Jarrett [Allen] together like I said we might.”
Allen and Davis were the only healthy big men the Nets had on Wednesday. It’s unclear whether Faried and Williams will be available for Monday’s preseason game at Detroit, or if Atkinson will have enough big bodies to tinker with.
“It’s figuring out who jells together,” Treveon Graham said. “We practiced against each other for the last few weeks, a month. Just going against someone else and seeing who jells is something we really need to do this preseason.” But will they be able to? “[Atkinson] hasn’t directly addressed the mixing and matching of lineups, but it’s something we expect,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “He’s talked about needing to grow in the preseason, and figure out our identity.”
Atkinson has a lot of figuring to do. Can the Nets go small to get shooting on the floor, and still rebound? Injuries forced them to try it Wednesday and they got beat up by the Knicks, shooting 8-for-41 from 3-point range as DeMarre Carroll went scoreless at power forward.
Will Dinwiddie start alongside D’Angelo Russell, or run the second unit as he did in handing out a team-high six assists in the preseason opener? Will the secondary ballhandling in the starting lineup come from Caris LeVert playing small forward like he did against the Knicks?
“We’ve got a lot of ballhandlers on the team that complement each other. The more we play together, the chemistry will grow. The more practice and the more different opponents we get to play we’ll grow together,” Russell said.
“I don’t know. I don’t control the minutes. I just go out there and play as hard as I can. That’s coach Kenny, his job,” LeVert said. “[Russell] is comfortable playing with and without the basketball. I am too. I think just playing off each other will be something we’re working on and we’ll get better at every day.”
The Nets are determined to live and die by the 3.
They died out behind the arc in Wednesday’s preseason opener, although they said it was actually shot selection that did them in.
“We missed a lot of open ones, but still I thought that we took some contested ones, especially the contested ones off the dribble,” said coach Kenny Atkinson, whose motion offense relies on the 3-pointer.
“The contested 3s off the dribble, it’s a tough shot. I felt like [we took] too many of those. Our offense has a long way to go. We struggled to execute. [The Knicks] pressured our guards and did a good job of getting into the ball and we struggled executing.”
It’s a familiar refrain, and one the Nets have to fix. That’s what preseason is for, after all, ironing out the kinks. But this one is both a reoccurring and worrisome one.
The Nets put up the third-most 3-pointers in NBA history last season at 35.7 per game, but were just 20th in accuracy. They would’ve killed for that Wednesday.
Against an equally sorry Knicks team, the Nets were a horrid 8-of-41 from 3-point range.
The Nets have privately felt they’ve addressed their 3-point needs. Joe Harris (40 percent), Allen Crabbe (39.7) and Jared Dudley (39.6) are 15th, 16th and 17th among all active players in 3-point percentage, while Treveon Graham would lead the list at 43.8 percent if he had enough attempts to qualify.
That quartet went 5-of-21 in the preseason opener.
Dudley was 10th in the voting in Wednesday’s annual NBAGMsurvey for the player likely to become the best head coach, while Ed Davis was 10th for most underrated acquisition.