YOUTH GROUP
Nets banking on developing Russell, young core
Youth will be served in Brooklyn — or at least get major playing time. How fast the Nets can rebuild will depend on how quickly they guide their youngsters through growing pains.
Bereft of lottery picks, general manager Sean Marks’ long-term plan is finding young talents like Jarrett Allen and D’Angelo Russell. That means fostering a culture for them to develop in as both players and people, growing a winner from the ground up. With five key pieces 22-and-under, that culture will get put to the test.
“We’ve established a really good culture, good atmosphere,” point guard Jeremy Lin told The Post. “I feel like we’ve done a good job getting high character guys who’re ready to work and grind. It’ll be OK. If young guys aren’t hungry and are caught up in their own thing, they stay young in a lot of their manners. If they’re sped up along in the right way they become [vets].”
Lin is the lone veteran holdover in the lineup, and the Nets hope their de facto leader is right about the culture they’ve built. For a squad coming off an NBAworst 20-62 campaign, going young is as necessary as it will be trying.
“I see just greatness, having a team and an organization that’s focused on development. It’s just good,” said Allen, who the Nets drafted at No. 22 on Thursday. “Personally, I need somebody to help me develop, and having them around will help me a lot,’’
Isaiah Whitehead, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Caris LeVert are all 22. Allen is just 19, a Texas teen adjusting not only to Brooklyn but facing grown men. The Lakers questioned Russell’s maturity after he taped Nick Young talking about cheating on ex-fiance Iggy Azalea, then ripped the 21-year-old on the way out.
“What I needed was a leader,’’ Lakers president Magic Johnson said of Russell, also linked with Kendall Jenner, then Niki Withers and most recently Jennifer Leon. “I needed somebody also that can make the other players better and also that players want to play with.”
Ouch. It is a scathing critique from the usually-positive Johnson, but one that didn’t deter Marks.
“I’ve known him for quite some time,” Marks said. “I’ve followed him through his college career prior to being drafted. When you’re able to get a talent like that in your gym, we’re excited. I’m not concerned about the maturity. … What I’m concerned about is what he brings and our culture and how we can develop him not only as a basketball player, but as a young man.”
And Hollis-Jefferson insists that culture only will help Russell, whom he knows personally and described as “good people.”
“D’Angelo is going to come fit right in, because he’s willing to work. He’s humble,’’ Hollis-Jefferson told The Post.
“Going through the process is weird for some people, him coming out here meeting a whole new group of people. … It’ll be different for him. I know him already. Having that relationship, we’ll be able to keep things going aligned and fitting right in and make him feel like a brother and everything will be at ease.”
It remains to be seen how easy it goes. Luis Scola and Randy Foye — now a free agent — provided much-needed veteran guidance to LeVert and Hollis-Jefferson last year. With Timofey Mozgov the only Net over 30, they’ll bring in other seasoned players to help Lin, 28, lead.
“That’s a discussion Sean and I are always having,’’ Atkinson said. “We’re still going to have a good balance. Last year we did a great job having a balance between veterans and young guys.
“I don’t think you’re going to see 15 guys who’re 24 or under. I do think, through free agency going forward, you’ll see balance on the roster. We think that helps in development, there’s no doubt about it. I think about the older guys we had in the locker room last year and how important that was to Caris’ development, Rondae’s, Isaiah. We know that’s an important piece to these guys developing.”
Fostering that development — especially of Russell and Allen — is the Nets’ only way out of the hole they are in.
“[Russell] has great size, does have some skill. I don’t know what happened in the locker room with his teammates, if that’s who he is,’’ said a veteran scout. “He’s not bad. I don’t know if he’s figured anything out yet. You hope he will. You’ve got Kenny Atkinson over there who’s terrific.
“I like [Russell] more in the pros than I did in college. His body and some of the things he does are pro-like, NBA-like. He’s not a badlooking shooter. The decisions need to be fine-tuned; but can you do that?”