Brooklyn Nets Roster Breakdown: Returnees

The Brooklyn Nets return their top eight scorers from a year ago, and seven of those players are age 27 or younger. It's a group that includes their 2017-18 team leaders in points (D'Angelo Russell), rebounds (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson), assists (Spencer Dinwiddie), blocks (Jarrett Allen), and 3-point shooting (Joe Harris).

On Jan. 1, 2018, Jarrett Allen scored a then-career-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting with six rebounds and two blocks against the Orlando Magic. He matched or exceeded that scoring high five more times before the end of the season, and by the end of the month he was in the starting lineup and finished January shooting 72.2 percent in 16 games. His big night against the Magic on New Year's Day offered up a wildly convenient line to split Allen's rookie season. In his first 27 NBA games through Dec. 31, 2017, Allen averaged 4.6 points and shot 48.4 percent. Over his final 45, he averaged 9.7 points and shot 63.7 percent. The surge led to Allen leading all rookies with a 58.9 FG% and 1.2 blocks per game.

The Nets got everything they could have hoped for out of DeMarre Carroll during his first season in Brooklyn. Reunited with Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, one of his former assistant coaches in Atlanta, the veteran forward had a resurgence in his ninth year after two tough seasons in Toronto. At 31, Carroll led the balanced Nets in minutes per game and posted career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and double-doubles (13 vs. a career total of eight entering the season) while picking up his 3-point shooting after an off year behind the arc with the Raptors in 2016-17. He knocked down a career-high 145 threes, the ninth-most in Nets history. That shooting range makes Carroll a versatile fit at both forward spots for the Nets.

The Nets saw deep-shooting swingman Allen Crabbe as the right fit for their three-happy offense and Crabbe obliged in launching 7.1 triples per game, tied with Klay Thompson for 11th in the NBA and just a percentage point out of the top 10. Crabbe knocked down 37.8 percent from deep, eighth among the 13 players with at least 7.1 attempts. He set a Nets franchise record with 201 threes made -- the youngest player in the NBA to make at least 200 3-pointers last season -- and tied for the team lead with 16 20-point games, topped by a career-high 41-point night against the Bulls on his 26th birthday. Crabbe averaged 15.1 points and shot 43.5 percent from 3-point range after the All-Star break, with a second-half surge pushing him to career highs in points, rebounds, assists and blocks.

The Spencer Dinwiddie breakout campaign elevated the entertainment level for Nets fans in 2017-18. With a series of game-winners as the Nets spent January in one tightrope game after another, by the end of the month Dinwiddie was leading the NBA with seven shots made to tie or take the lead in the fourth quarter or overtime. That helped earn him a spot in the All-Star Weekend Skills Competition, which he went on to win, and by the end of the year Dinwiddie was a finalist for the league's Most Improved Player Award. The almost-universal career highs helped in that regard, but Dinwiddie stood out measured against more than himself. He finished 11th in the NBA in assists per game, and his 4.09 assist to turnover ratio was second in the league. He was also ninth in assist percentage -- the percentage of teammate field goals a player assisted while on the floor -- making him a prime driver of the Brooklyn offense.

Last January, Joe Harris went out of his mind. 16 games. 52.6 percent shooting from 3-point range. 51.6 percent overall. Halfway through his fourth NBA season, it all came together. Harris shot 45 percent or higher from beyond the arc in three of the final four months of the season. From January 1 until the finale, Harris shot 46.7 percent from 3-point range in 44 games, the No. 2 mark in the NBA. Established as a shooter to be feared, he seized on the driving lanes offered as teams attempted to run him off the line. Finishing at a stronger rate than the year before, Harris shot 62.7 percent on drives, leading the league in the category among players with at least 100 field goal attempts. By the end of the season, Harris ranked sixth among all NBA players in effective field goal percentage and 11th in true shooting percentage, while putting up career highs across the board.

As he enters his fourth season, 23-year-old Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is the longest tenured Net. And he's grown into foundational piece based on more than just tenure. At a rangy 6-foot-7 with a relentless style, Hollis-Jefferson is a motor behind the Nets at their wide-open best. He led the team with 6.8 rebounds, the No. 3 mark in the NBA last year for players 6-7 or shorter, and coach Kenny Atkinson routinely describes him as the team's premier defender. Improving his mid-range shooting helped make Hollis-Jefferson a versatile scorer inside the arc as he increased his scoring by 5.2 points per game while increasing his shooting percentage from 43.4 to 47.2 and establishing career highs in most primary categories.

In his second NBA season, Caris LeVert took a significant step towards being the multi-dimensional wing the Nets see in him. Injuries to point guards D'Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin opened up the floor for LeVert as a playmaker, and he delivered 4.2 assists in 26.3 minutes per game. He also elevated his scoring average by 3.9 points and his 3-point shooting up from 32.1 percent as he shot 37.6 percent his final 50 games from Dec. 1 on. LeVert also led the Nets in steals with 1.2 per game and 152 deflections for the season.

A November knee injury interrupted D'Angelo Russell's first season in Brooklyn, limiting him to 48 games. He started 35 of those, averaging 17.2 points, 5.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds in 27.7 minutes per game. Russell also picked up his 3-point shooting after his return, making 36.4 percent of his threes over the final 20 games. He led the Nets in scoring and averaged career highs in assists and rebounds. Russell registered the first triple double by a Net since 2010, had five double-doubles, three 30-point games, and had eight or more assists 11 times in 48 games.