Insider-201718

Tom Dowd

New settings are nothing new for D’Angelo Russell.

The Brooklyn Nets point guard has been on the move since he was 15 years old, notably finding his fifth head coach in five years with Kenny Atkinson when he arrived in Brooklyn this season.

It’s all come with a purpose, to push himself and pursue his basketball ambitions at the highest level. The journey began after his freshman year at Central HS in Louisville, Kentucky, when Russell opted for Montverde Academy in Florida. One of the premier high school basketball programs in the country, Montverde plays a national schedule and its NBA alumni include not just Russell, but Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, Houston’s Luc Mbah a Moute, and more.

At Montverde, Russell grew into a premier recruit with national high school championships and appearances in the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic at Barclays Center.

“It was different, but it prepared me for college,” said Russell. “I feel like when I went to public school in Kentucky, it was just a normal lifestyle, normal teenager just playing on a basketball team. Then I went there, it was like I was in college at a young age already. When I got to college it was two times easier, because I was already living in a dorm situation, learning how to eat the right way, protecting myself, washing my own clothes. The structure was already like a college structure.”

Did it all factor into Russell’s quick acclimation at Ohio State? It’s tough to argue with the results. Russell’s single season in Columbus ended with First Team All-American honors, as well as First Team All-Big Ten and Big Ten freshman of the year selections after he averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

It was more than he expected at the time. But the overwhelming performance sent Russell’s draft stock soaring, and he was on the move again, faster than he had planned. The Los Angeles Lakers grabbed him with the second pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

“I used to always tell my dad, two three years, get my body right, mature a little bit,” said Russell. “And then, as the season went on, I just kept getting better. It’s something that just happened. I feel like any freshman going in, you work on your craft and your tools, but it’s all about your situation, going into a school that’s just going to allow you to be you right away.”

After two years and two coaches in LA, Russell landed in Brooklyn last summer. The price paid – franchise all-time leading scorer Brook Lopez plus a first-round pick – defined him as a centerpiece of general manager Sean Marks’ rebuilding project.

“It's cool,” said Russell of Brooklyn. “It’s different. The whole culture is different. I feel like there’s a lot of different crowds out here. You can fit in wherever you want to fit in. It’s great.”

The soft-spoken Russell has exuded a steady, take-it-as-it-comes calm with the move to Brooklyn. In some ways, the setting is irrelevant, a distraction to be set aside in favor of a singular focus on the court. He lives close to work, nearby Barclays Center. His off-the-court team – brothers Antonio and LaShon and best friend Craig – take care of the details. They found the apartment for the group. Russell keeps two dogs – Bernedoodles – and they help take care of them when he’s on the road with the team.

“I told them throughout the draft process, wherever I go, you guys have got to come with me,” said Russell. “They were all in, and they’ve made my life easier since that day.”

He’s found a comfort level with the Nets as well, with an appreciation for the team’s commitment to player care and coach Atkinson’s dogged, hands-on approach to player development.

“Kenny’s whole style is different,” said Russell. “He’s a workhorse, no shortcut-type guy, and he coaches like that. He gets the best out of you.”

Russell’s setback since coming to Brooklyn was out of everybody’s control, a knee injury suffered at Utah on Nov. 11 that sidelined him for 32 games. After surgery, he attacked the rehab process while staying as involved as possible with the team.

Instead of staying back in Brooklyn while the Nets were away, he would hit the road and seek out gyms in one city or the next to get his work in.

“I was going to local clinics and stuff like that,” said Russell. “Doing rehab. Being with the team as much as possible. A lot of the times it was me on the side, doing my own individual workouts, trying to get up to speed. That was pretty much what my whole day consisted of every day, non-stop, five days a week. Give a lot of credit to the training staff.”

Over his first 12 games with the Nets, Russell had jumped out to a fast start at career-best paces, averaging 20.9 points and 5.7 assists per game, plus 4.7 rebounds. He returned to action with a 14-minute stint in a win over Miami on Jan. 19 and steadily escalated his minutes and contributions.

“The first part of the season is more indicative of what type of player he is,” said Spencer Dinwiddie shortly after Russell’s return. “When you miss, 40 games, 30 games something like that, you’re going to have some of that up and down because you’re trying to find yourself, find your rhythm. The team has been run in a certain way in your absence, because it had to, and now the team has to adjust. It wasn’t like it was a two-game thing, it was half the season. All of that is, it’s a growth process. It’s something that he’s going through and we’re all going through. But you can’t get worse by adding more talent. We look forward to finding that balance and him finding his rhythm completely.”

After averaging 18.3 points and 6.3 assists over a three-game stretch in mid-February, Russell returned to the starting lineup for the first time since November with a 19-point game at Charlotte on Feb. 22 and followed up with eight assists against Chicago and 25 points, six assists and five rebounds against Cleveland.

“Trying to get that rhythm back, taking care of my body,” said Russell around the time he re-entered the starting lineup. “Just being better all-around, the boards, on the court, off the court, that’s been my main focus.”

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back-in-rhythm

Back in Rhythm

Success rarely comes in a straight line. DeMarre Carroll knows. Drafted in the first round in 2009, he was traded in his second season, waived mid-season in his third. It wasn’t until he landed in Atlanta, his fifth team in five seasons, that things came together.

“You never know when your opportunity is going to come in this league,” said Carroll. “People look at it and always think the worst. Might be the 15th man on the roster, or might not even be dressing. Injuries happen. Lot of things happen. When you’re young, you don’t understand that.

“My opportunity was in Utah. I was behind the bench for half the year. Three guys got hurt in the San Antonio game. I came in that game, hit four threes. Crazy how Mike Budenholzer, he remembered that game particularly, and he brought me to Atlanta, and he allowed me to be a starting small forward for his team.”

That particular move on Carroll’s winding journey set him on a path, eventually, for Brooklyn. It was in Atlanta that he connected with Nets coach Kenny Atkinson, then a Hawks assistant. In Brooklyn, the 31-year-old Carroll shares a locker room with plenty of players who are at different stages of the course he traveled. They’ve been doubted and discarded, and it drives the way they practice and play today.

“I think that’s part of why we have that competitive fire,” said Atkinson. “Guys that aren’t four-year contracts and sometimes can relax a little bit. For the most part with our guys there’s no relax in those type of guys. None of us have done anything in this league, except for Timy (Mozgov) won a championship, DeMarre’s been to a conference final, then the rest of us, me included, we’re trying to make it.”

Spencer Dinwiddie and Quincy Acy were in the G League before being signed by the Nets. Joe Harris was in limbo, traded and waived in the midst of his second NBA season and looking for another shot. Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas were in Philly, but apparently not in the plans, waiting to see what would happen next.

When you have a half-dozen players in your locker room that have had that experience, it informs the personality of the team.

“All the guys here have a chip on their shoulder,” said Okafor. “We’ve all come from another scenario and we’re all here and we feel like we got a fresh start, or the majority of us at least, and we’re all doing the best to make the most out of it.”

That phrase – “chip on their shoulder” – is something heard often from Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks over the past two years. They use it to describe a lot of the players they’ve acquired. It’s a trait they appreciate. It’s a trait they seem to seek out.

“I think you have to have that in order to have success in the NBA,” said Harris. “It’s too difficult. There are too many guys coming up every single year. There’s a whole new crew of 60 guys getting picked. There’s constant young talent that’s coming into the NBA. No matter where you’re at in your career, the guys that have been able to stick around, people like DeMarre, for him to make it, play for that long, he’s got the same traits that he had when he was clawing his way in, and now he’s made it, but he still has the exact same personality, that chip on his shoulder, that competitive edge.”

Harris is among the players following Carroll’s lead. In his fourth NBA season, he’s posting career highs across the board, pushing the 40-percent shooting mark from 3-point range that he declared as a goal before the season. Dinwiddie has been a revelation at the point, a sure-handed floor general with the ability to break out for big scoring games and a knack for pressure shots.

“The way we practice, the culture we bring here, is opportunity,” said Carroll. “Take advantage of the opportunity, be a competitive team. That’s what it’s teaching these guys. You never know when that’s going to happen. Who will say Spencer would be the player he is now if D’Angelo (Russell) didn’t get hurt, if Jeremy Lin didn’t get hurt. He’s taken advantage of his opportunity.

“I think in this league, that’s what you must do. It’s a must. If you don’t take advantage of opportunity, you can only look at yourself. It might be five games, it might be 10 games, it might be one game. But there’s 29 other teams out there that’s looking at you, and observing you, on a daily basis. Even your own franchise. I feel like you’ve just got to be ready for your opportunity.”

It's not just the second-chance crew. Young Nets like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen and Russell are all trying to claim their place. It’s a roster full of players with something to prove.

“Whenever we win games, it’s because we were gritty and because of our personality as a whole,” said Acy. “I think a lot of times when we lose games, we kind of get complacent and we haven’t made it anywhere, so we can’t get complacent in any shape or form. We’ve got to do what got us here. We’ve got to approach every game with that same grit and toughness and identity. That just has to be our identity every time we take the floor.”

proving-ground

Proving Ground

Quincy Acy has been around. A rookie year and change in Toronto. Two stints as a fan favorite in Sacramento, wrapped around a year with the Knicks. A homecoming in Dallas with the Mavericks before arriving in Brooklyn just over a year ago.

His month with the Mavericks at the start of the 2016-17 season included just six games played, but the shortest stint of Acy’s NBA career may have been the most impactful for him.

He had carved out his place in the NBA over the previous four seasons as a grinder, an undersized power forward at 6-foot-7 who had survived on work ethic and determination.

For a guy known for doing the dirty work in the paint, there wasn’t a lot of encouragement to expand his game beyond the arc and start firing away from 3-point range. Even as the NBA’s emphasis on 3-point shooting grew every year, Acy had never even averaged one attempt per game before he got to Dallas. But when he arrived, he found that coach Rick Carlisle already knew his shooting percentages from different spots on the floor. And he liked what he saw.

“He would pull me after practice every day, and he would work on me, 30 minutes to an hour, just me and him, just shooting,” said Acy. “Getting my form. Getting my feet and my base, everything right. He took a ball, put my hand on the ball, asked one of the ballboys, yelled at him, ‘get me a permanent marker.’ He drew my hand on the ball. And every time I shot, he wanted my hand to be right there on that print, to shoot the ball.

“Other guys were kind of laughing at me. But I’ve still got that ball in my house right now, because it’s a reminder. He believed in me.”

Even after the injury-stricken Mavs let him go in November 2016 to make room for a needed point guard on the roster, they continued to support Acy’s reinvention. He signed with the franchise’s G League team, the Texas Legends. That allowed him to stay active, and stay in his Dallas home. Carlisle would check in with Legends coach Bob MacKinnon, who continued to encourage Acy as well.

It was Acy’s first time in the G League since a handful of games as a rookie. He was determined not to stay very long.

“They have the talent some people, but they don’t have that next step that takes them over the edge to put them up here,” said Acy. “That’s why I tried to separate myself, tried to be a leader, tried to get guys to join me. I would shoot every time, no matter what, any chance I had to do some extra shooting, I was there. Days off, I was in the gym. It didn’t matter what. If we had an option for shootaround, sometimes I’d be the only one there.”

By the time Acy arrived in Brooklyn after 12 games with the Legends, he was already a different player than the Nets thought they were getting.

Kenny Atkinson had always been a fan. During his days as an assistant coach in Atlanta, the Knicks were one of his scouting assignments. Acy’s aggressiveness jumped out at him.

“I watched him play a ton,” said Atkinson. “His big thing is how competitive he was, how much energy he had. So when (general manager) Sean (Marks) mentioned the idea of bringing him in, I was all in. What we didn’t realize is how well he shot the ball.”

Acy joined the Nets in January of last season, played through a pair of 10-day contracts, then signed a multi-year deal at the end of the month. In 32 games, his newfound shooting prowess was on display, as he connected from 3-point range at a scorching 43.4 percent.

With that, Acy has emerged as one of the NBA’s most unlikely prolific 3-point shooters. Through the end of January, he was averaging 7.6 3-point attempts per-36 minutes, the fourth highest in the league among forwards and one of the top 20 highest rates in the league.

Acy is part of one of the Nets’ most productive heavy-usage offensive lineups, teaming with DeMarre Carroll, Allen Crabbe, Spencer Dinwiddie and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for an offensive rating of 113.3. The league-leading Golden State Warriors have an overall offensive rating of 113.6. His shooting range helps pull bigger defenders away from the paint and open up driving lanes for his teammates.

“Our offense is better with him in the game,” said Atkinson. “I do think, not that Q’s a bad defender, but we do take a hit defensively because we don’t have the size that we have with the big guys. But I think offensively it just gives us more space out there.”

The growth in his skills hasn’t changed Acy’s approach to the game. In his heart, he’s still the kid at the end of the bench as a high school freshman who fought his way to a varsity starting spot as a sophomore. That’s the way he’s attacked his NBA career as well.

“I have always had to fight for my minutes and for my position,” said Acy. “It’s never been anything new to me. I know that regardless I’m going to have to stay in the gym, do what I did to get me here, and keep fighting. When I started out, it was no different. I knew I was shorter, not as big, I knew I wasn’t as skilled, but you weren’t going to outwork me. That’s what I still live by today. As long as I keep working hard, I think there will always be a spot for me.”

long-shot

Long Shot

It wasn’t that long ago that Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was the kid in the room.

He was the rookie, on a roster with players with 10 and 14 years of experience in the NBA. With another who would end up playing more seasons with the Nets than any player in franchise history.

Like a lot of 20-year-olds – maybe more than most — Hollis-Jefferson was all energy and enthusiasm, with a personality he didn’t always know how to turn off. During a summer gathering of NBA rookies for a league photo shoot, his fellow rookies voted him the league’s funniest guy among the incoming class.

“When I first came in, it was just like, ah, he’s a jokester,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “A lot of people thought I was immature. I heard some people passed up on drafting me because of that. So yeah, it was kind of like, that kind of hurt me in a way.”

When he got to Brooklyn, he struggled with the transition after two years at the University of Arizona.

“I was seeking out how to fit being on a team with guys old enough to be my dad,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “It was something different for me. I was kind of quiet, but I also felt like, I have my own voice, which kind of got me into trouble sometimes.”

“I just didn’t understand it,” he added. “It took a lot for me to grow out of that, saying things impulsively.”

If Hollis-Jefferson has changed, so have his surroundings and his circumstances. As the 2017-18 NBA season opened, he was, remarkably, the longest-tenured Net on the roster at the start of his third professional season.

A month after his 23rd birthday, Hollis-Jefferson is one of nine Nets on the team’s 15-man roster aged 25 or younger. As he’s grown up, the team around him has gotten younger.

“I’m kind of like still the same person, but just more controlled,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “I’m more, you can just tell the way I carry myself, how I talk to people. It feels good to be able to do that. People take you more seriously.”

It’s all part of what coach Kenny Atkinson has seen since arriving prior to the 2016-17 season. A growing maturity, coupled with physical development, that has made Hollis-Jefferson one of Brooklyn’s most important and productive players.

“He’s still open, kind-hearted, extrovert,” said Atkinson. “He’s naturally attracted to people. But I do say he’s kind of drawn the line with his work, and I think when he steps on the floor he’s become much more focused, much more dialed in. And again, just keeping his emotional controls, young player, he’s really improved in that area.”

As Hollis-Jefferson developed a better fit in the locker room, he created one on the court. That was a process that required its own patience. The role Hollis-Jefferson grew into defies expectations about players that fit his profile, in different ways.

At 6-foot-7 and 214 pounds, Hollis-Jefferson starts at the ‘4’ – or power forward – spot, a position that a generation ago required a player at least three inches taller and maybe 30-plus pounds heavier. But even as the league has trended smaller, Hollis-Jefferson is pushing those boundaries.

One of the reasons the NBA has gone in that direction is to add shooting range to the position. But, on a team that fires away from beyond the arc at a rate that exceeds nearly every other team in the league, Hollis-Jefferson built his offensive game around drives, post-ups and mid-range jumpers.

Hollis-Jefferson takes 90 percent of his shots from inside of 19 feet, split almost evenly between attempts at the rim and jumpers from 5 to 19 feet.

“He’s found his niche,” said Atkinson. “I think he’s found his niche with the drives, driving to the rim where he creates. He’s improved his finishing rate, and then he gets to the free throw line a ton. He’s playing to his strength in that sense. And then his mid-range game, his elbow game, we call it the Karl Malone spot game, right off the post, then you can face up and keep guys honest. Then when they come out on him he can drive it.”

On his first media day as a Net in 2015, Hollis-Jefferson brushed aside doubts about his perimeter shooting prowess by describing himself – with a grin of course – as a “mid-range assassin.” But even at the time his confidence in that part of his game was waning.

He found a fresh start with advice from a legend. Before his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant starred at Lower Merion HS outside of Philadelphia, a rival of Hollis-Jefferson’s hometown high school in Chester, a town on the shore of the Delaware River south of the city.

Bryant’s own career began before the NBA’s 3-point revolution, and the long-range game was rarely a major part of his own offensive repertoire. He encouraged Hollis-Jefferson to find a home at a spot where he’d always been comfortable, in the elbow area at the end of the foul line.

“To get that advice from your childhood idol, it was big for me,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “That’s something I just worked on. Plays from the elbow. Plays from the mid-post. Kicking it out. All these things that are happening that I do, these are the things that I worked on.”

The elbow offered options; to drive, to flick in a jumper from a comfortable range, to dish to a cutting teammate as defenders committed to him on the edge of the paint. So did posting up outside the paint, from a similar distance of 10-to-15 feet, where he could turn and face the basket after receiving the ball and consider the same possibilities.

Those spots became the starting point of Hollis-Jefferson rebuilding his confidence in his offensive game. In his third season, he’s nearly doubled his scoring average and increased his numbers across the board while earning bigger minutes and greater responsibility.

He’s gotten more comfortable with himself on and off the court. When the Nets opened HSS Training Center in 2016, Hollis-Jefferson moved to Brooklyn before his second season. He’s come of age in the borough. Two years after wondering how he could fit in, he feels at home.

“I kind of have a sense of Brooklyn,” said Hollis-Jefferson. “The community. Even the people that work in the Barclays, they’re just so familiar with seeing me. Brooklyn’s a part of me. That takes place into the locker room, into how you interact with people. I’m not only giving them Rondae, I’m giving them what Brooklyn gave me. The love they gave me. The different personalities they gave me. I’m just showing the guys in the locker room that this is what you’ll face in Brooklyn. Embrace it. Love it. Because they’ll love you back.”

brooklyn-built

Brooklyn Built

The second-year Brooklyn Nets swingman had an abbreviated rookie season, its start delayed as he recovered from surgery to solve the foot problems that plagued his final two seasons at Michigan. But aside from ankle tweak during the final day of training camp that cost him two preseason games, he had the full run-up to the 2017-18 season that he was looking for, with NBA Summer League action in Las Vegas with teammates Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Spencer Dinwiddie and Isaiah Whitehead, plus regular workouts at HSS Training Center.

“I’m a big Caris fan,” said Jeremy Lin during preseason. “I think he’s going to take big steps. I think he’s going to be a big-time player. Hopefully everyone else will get to see it. I’ve seen it all summer long.”

Lin was far from alone in his expectations. But then the season started, and something was off. For the first three weeks, LeVert struggled to put the ball in the basket.

“Just one of those things,” said LeVert. “Maybe putting extra pressure on myself as well, just eager to play well. Because I felt like I had a really good summer. Just eager to come out here and play well. For whatever reason I struggled a little bit for the first games.”

If LeVert’s early-season struggles were puzzling, they were also an aberration. Since the Nets returned home from an early-season West Coast trip in mid-November his production has charted steadily upward.

“I’m glad he’s really starting to get his groove now, but I was surprised he didn’t get off to a better start,” said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. “It’s funny, there’s a fine line with guys being in their comfort zone and their comfort role. I don’t think he found his role in the beginning of the year and now he’s starting, almost by happenstance and a little bit of just how our lineups, he’s kind of found his niche as that second unit backup guard.

“We obviously put him in at end of games where he can play off the ball. It’s kind of a neat role for him, he’s really settled into a nice niche right now, and he’s obviously got the ball in his hands a lot more than the beginning of the year. I think in the beginning he was just kind of spotting up all the time. He’s much more dynamic than that, and we’re starting to discover him more.”

Two Nets injuries gave LeVert more responsibility and more opportunity. Lin’s season ended on opening night and D’Angelo Russell was sidelined in November following knee surgery. Dinwiddie became the starting point guard, but the Nets needed somebody else to handle the ball.

LeVert was the natural choice, with his ability to take advantage of pick-and-roll opportunities and put pressure on a defense.

He went for 15 points against the Celtics in Brooklyn’s first game back home on Nov. 14, shooting 6-for-7 from the field and making both his 3-point attempts. Over the next 24 games LeVert scored in double figures 20 times, averaging 13.6 points. He put up a career-high 21 points against Oklahoma City in Mexico City, then topped that with 22 against New Orleans.

All the while, his assists zoomed upward as he settled into a playmaking role. The full range of LeVert’s growing game was on display over the second half of December. In a nine-game stretch capped by his 15 points, eight assists and five rebounds in New Year’s Day win over Orlando, LeVert averaged 15.7 points while shooting 55.6 percent from 3-point range and 57.5 percent overall, in addition to 5.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game.

“When you have the ball in your hands, you’re just more comfortable,” said LeVert. “I think that’s definitely playing to my strengths the past month or so. Just having the ball in my hands and making the right decisions, I feel like that’s one of my strengths on the court. That’s definitely helped my confidence for sure.”

There are next steps to take. One is improving on catch-and-shoot opportunities from 3-point range, particularly when Russell returns. As few as two or three shots per game can make a difference in shot selection quality and shooting percentage. At 6-foot-7, LeVert has shown an ability to make tough shots in traffic in the lane. Atkinson thinks, let’s make life a little easier sometimes.

“We want him at the rim,” said Atkinson. “That guy can get to the rim. We love him in pick and roll. I do think he’s got to cut down -- we showed him on film -- degree of difficulty. We say, you’re not going to eat like that. It’s a tough way to live in this league. Granted, end of shot clock you’re going to have make some of those and he can do it, because of his size.”

At the other end, LeVert has embraced the task Atkinson often gives him of taking on the opponents’ best perimeter player, particularly late in games.

“I love guarding that player,” said LeVert. “I love being the guy that goes against the best player, tries to stop the best player. That’s just how competitive I am. I like that pressure on myself. So I definitely love when coach does that.”

From playmaking to scoring to defense, these responsibilities have made LeVert a centerpiece of Brooklyn’s youth movement. He’s one of nine players aged 25 or under on the 15-man roster, most of whom are playing significant minutes as they grow together.

“We’re a young team obviously,” said LeVert. “We’re building in that direction. We’re building with young players. I think it’s really fun for all of us because we’re growing together. None of us have it really figured out, except for the older guys, so we’re all trying to figure it out together, and that’s a really fun process, because we’re all playing in games doing it as well. We’re definitely in a great situation, and it’s fun.”

comfort-zone

Comfort Zone

If there’s a checklist of goals for the 2017-18 Brooklyn Nets season, the development of rookie Jarrett Allen is up near the top.

Allen is the second-youngest player ever to wear a Nets uniform, and his progress is of paramount importance to the organization and profound interest to the fan base. With a 6-foot-11 frame, the athletic ability to get up and down the floor, and a wingspan that stretches from here to his home state of Texas, Allen fits the profile of the type of big man coach Kenny Atkinson was nudging general manager Sean Marks for in the offseason.

Marks obliged when he selected Allen with the 22nd overall pick in last June’s NBA Draft, right here at Barclays Center.

“He does everything you want in a big player,” said Atkinson the day after the draft. “Runs the court. Defends the rim. Has great timing. Great feel for the game. I was really impressed with his passing. We got a heck of a player.”

Nothing has tempered Atkinson’s enthusiasm since. The coach has said that by the end of training camp he knew the 19-year-old would have a place on the court this season, not just learning from the sidelines.

After a DNP on opening night in Indiana, Allen scored nine points in his NBA debut in the Nets’ home opener two nights later and has been a steady part of the rotation since, save for seven games missed following a foot injury.

“Happy with him,” said Atkinson. “Happy with how he fits our system. Happy with his competitiveness. Happy that he gives us a 7-foot rim protector and rim roller. We’re very good defensively when he’s on the court. The analytics back that up. He’s what we thought. I just can’t wait for him to start accumulating more time on the court, because he’s just going to get better and better.”

For everything that Allen has shown so far, the Nets are anticipating that there is so much more to come.

“He’s 19 years old, just learning how to play basketball,” said Tyler Zeller. “I think back to 19, I was barely playing in college, let alone in the NBA. He’s a great athlete. Long wingspan. He’s got a lot of things that I kind of wish I had that make the game easy. He’s a very smart guy, hopefully over time he’ll continue learning the game, continue to get better.”

At age 27 on a team with nine players 25 or under on its 15-man roster, Zeller is a respected veteran voice who quickly became a resource for the talented rookie.

“He’s really been helpful trying to teach me on and off the court stuff,” said Allen, “showing me what it takes to be an NBA player.”

Zeller was signed in September, bringing some frontcourt depth to a team that had only two players – Allen and Timofey Mozgov – measuring 6-11 or taller before his signing. Zeller arrived after five steady and solid seasons with Cleveland and Boston. By the start of December, the pair formed the core of Brooklyn’s rotation at the center spot, with Zeller in a starting role and averaging 8.5 points while shooting 62.5 percent from the field.

The off-the-court connection began somewhat coincidentally; Allen and Zeller found themselves seated next to each other on a team flight and got to talking.

“He really wants to learn,” said Zeller. “He really wants to figure it out. He does a great job asking questions; ‘if this happens, what do I need to do’ kind of thing. The biggest thing I could do is more playing against guys. The first time playing against anybody, everybody’s got tendencies, and knowing them goes a long ways.”

That curiosity is part of Allen’s makeup. His father is a manager for Dell and there was always a computer in the house. Jarrett took an interest at a young age and eventually did some investigating into the hardware before ordering parts online and eventually building one himself.

“Once you start playing, you want to figure out how it works,” said Allen. “My dad, he opened his computer, I didn’t really know about the insides. Oh, there’s all that stuff. About two years later I decided to make one and that’s what I did.”

In basketball, there’s also some things that can’t be learned, or taught. Plenty of those impressive skills have been on display so far.

“Just his length and his ability to protect the rim, rebound,” said Zeller. “There’s a lot of plays he’ll catch the ball under the rim and I’m like, ‘he’s got no chance to finish that.’ And all of a sudden those arms just go up. He’s really learning. That’s the biggest thing, learning what you’re really good at. He’s quickly learning that he can dunk the ball, he can do those kinds of things at this level.”

Allen has kept his offensive game to the basics so far, taking 74 percent of his shots inside of five feet from the rim through the middle of December, shooting 54 percent. What’s most impressive are the moments, and there seem to be a few every game, from a big block to a ferocious finish.

After scoring nine points in that debut back in October, Allen had four blocks in his second appearance. At the start of December, he had his first two double-figure scoring games in back-to-back games against Atlanta.

If the Nets are looking forward to what comes next, so is Allen.

“Just keep learning,” said Allen. “Just keep doing what I’m doing. Talking to coaches, talking to other players, people even outside of the Nets, they say I’m doing fine. I’m on the right track to being a good player.”

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Just Getting Started

When Kenny Atkinson sat down with Joe Harris in the summer of 2016, one thing stood out to the Nets coach.

Harris was coming off an interrupted second season in the NBA. Drafted early in the second round by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, he’d played in just five games in year two, and in the space of a week in January 2016, he’d undergone season-ending surgery, been traded to the Orlando Magic and then waived.

With his NBA future hanging in the balance, he came in to do a workout and meet with Atkinson and the Nets.

“What I loved, he took ownership,” said Atkinson. “He wasn’t like, ‘Oh, Cleveland didn’t give me an opportunity.’ He was all, ‘It was me.’ That convinced me that this is a guy we want. Just his character to say that. Ninety-nine percent of guys would put it off on their circumstances. He said, ‘I didn’t play well enough.’ No excuses. That’s what tipped it off. Since he’s been with us, it’s amazing his commitment to what we’re doing.”

It’s the kind of accountability that you might have found being taught in Joe Harris Sr.’s gym back in Chelan, Washington over the last 30 years.

For three decades Joe Harris Sr. preached defense and teamwork, including four seasons with his only son, who led Chelan High to a 50-8 record over his junior and senior seasons while twice being named state player of the year in his class.

“My dad is a pretty intense coach,” said Harris. “Kind of a no-nonsense sort of guy. Very disciplined program. He had been there for a long time and had a lot of success. He ran a tight ship. Everybody understood that. A lot of his core philosophy was based off guys and their demeanors, being good teammates. He didn’t like it when guys lost their composure or were bad teammates. Those were the main staples.”

In small-town Chelan — population around 4,000 — Harris didn’t limit himself to hoops, mixing in some football, baseball, track and wrestling. With three sisters who also played high school or college athletics, there was no shortage of activity in the Harris household.

“We had a hoop in the front yard, but when your dad’s the coach and he has the keys to the gym it’s pretty easy to have access to the gym, so we were fortunate that way,” said Harris. “If it was a Saturday afternoon and not a lot was going on we could always just run down the gym, open it up and mess around down there.”

The Chelan High gym was a second home for Harris growing up. He was the kid hanging around every practice from the time he was four or five years old, working the scoreboard, fetching towels and filling up water jugs. By the time he was in middle school, he was taking the court with his father’s team in open gyms on Saturday afternoons or during the offseason.

The kid behind the bench ended up as Washington Mr. Basketball and the Gatorade Washington Player of the Year and a major conference Division I recruit, while he and Joe Sr. comfortably navigated what can sometimes be a tricky balance between father and son or coach and player.

“I think we built up a pretty good relationship where we never really took any of this stuff home,” said Harris. “My dad now, or even since I’ve been in college, is never one to be critical or give any pointers or anything like that. He just wants to enjoy being a fan. He likes sitting back and watching. It was a lot of the same thing growing up. When he was my coach he was my coach. When we left the gym it was a father-son type of deal. He never was really one to nitpick something that happened in practice or a game. He was pretty good at leaving it on the court.”

Harris built up a strong connection with Washington State coach Tony Bennett — who had coincidentally played for his own father in college — and followed Bennett across the country when he left Washington State for Virginia. Harris started all but seven games he played in over his four seasons with the Cavaliers, leading Virginia to a sweep of the ACC regular season and tournament titles and then to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament as a senior in 2014.

With the Nets, Harris was brought in to add some shooting to the spread-the-floor offense that Atkinson was planning to install. He’d shot 40 percent from 3-point range in college and in his first season with the Nets knocked down 38.5 percent of his attempts from deep while making 11 starts in 52 appearances.

Before the 2017-18 season began, he expressed an ambition to lift that percentage up over 40 percent, into the area where the NBA’s truly elite 3-point shooters live.

“It’s more of a mental thing than anything else I think,” said Harris. “Just being able to have that confidence, whatever is giving you the confidence to shoot the ball. That’s what it boils down to. For me, I feel like technically I’ve worked so much on my shot that it’s just about the confidence and letting it go. Not thinking about it, not overanalyzing and just having the confidence that it’s going to go in when I let it go.”

Atkinson’s priorities for Harris this season were a little bit different. Cutting down on the turnovers was at the top of the list. Harris averaged 1.1 turnovers in just 22 minutes a game last season, and so far this year he’s cut that number by more than half.

Harris’ turnovers last season often came on drives to the rim. Taking care of the ball better is just one of the ways he’s punishing teams that rush out to run him off the 3-point line. After making just 54 percent of his shots within five feet of the rim last season, he was finishing at a 75-percent rate over the first month and shooting 64 percent overall on 2-point field goal attempts.

Atkinson loves the way Harris keeps his game clean and simple, and the way he competes on defense. But a shooter’s mentality is always at the heart of Harris’ game.

“Even if I’ve missed five or six in a row, I’m going to take the next one with just as much confidence that I can make it,” said Harris. “And that’s how it should be. For me, my role on this team is to take shots, help space the floor for the guys that we have, our ballhandlers and facilitators. And we have a lot of good playmakers, so the more space they can have, the better it is for us as a team. I’m not going to be doing this team a service if I don’t shoot the ball. Even if I miss the shots, it’s still bringing the defense to me and showing that I’m a threat.”

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Straight Shooter

As a new NBA season approached, Spencer Dinwiddie felt the time was right. Time to take what he’d accomplished on the basketball court and let it translate to an impact off the court.

Coming up on three years since his NBA debut, he was feeling like he’d found his place with the Brooklyn Nets and looking forward to contributing for a full season for the first time. This was an opportunity.

So he launched the Dinwiddie Family Foundation with the goal of providing college scholarship support to students in need. For scholarship recipients, the foundation covers the remaining expenses beyond any other financial aid that has been received in order to provide a full scholarship.

For Dinwiddie, whose mother owns a preschool and whose great uncle initiated and administered a small scholarship program at their church, supporting educational ambitions was a natural instinct that had a personal impact.

“I think with the state of our country right now, shifting away from the divisive nature and rhetoric and being able to do something that truly is helpful to people and further a cause you support, for me it’s education, and just being able to help people,” said Dinwiddie.

He also came up with a novel approach to fundraising, tied to his newfound comfort zone and his ambition to play a full 82-game season for the first time. For every Nets game, Dinwiddie’s goal is to acquire a game-used, autographed item from himself, a teammate or an opponent and auction it off to support the scholarship fund.

“I was trying to think of something that would create awareness,” said Dinwiddie. “I already knew that I was going to infuse a certain amount of my own dollars into the program. I wanted to do something that created awareness and created another little revenue stream for the foundation that could potentially send another kid to college or raise awareness.”

The foundation is a milestone on Dinwiddie’s journey, borne out of his feeling that he had finally found some stability in his NBA career. It’s been a year since Dinwiddie became a Net, signed out of the G League last December. At the time, Jeremy Lin was sidelined with a hamstring injury. Greivis Vasquez, signed to be Lin’s primary backup, was gone a week into the season, hobbled by an ankle injury.

Dinwiddie had played 46 games for the Detroit Pistons over the previous two seasons, been traded to the Chicago Bulls and waived after training camp, then played for the Windy City Bulls.

“We were looking for a point guard,” said Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. “I will say I did have good memories of when I saw him play in Detroit. The little that he played I was intrigued by the athlete, 6-6, I said, ‘this guy is pretty good.’ Most of the credit goes to Sean (Marks). (The front office) identified him. He was No. 1 on the list and we went and got him.”

The early returns were uneven as Dinwiddie worked to acclimate himself and the Nets sought to sort out their own lineup. Rookie Caris LeVert had made his NBA debut the day before the Nets signed Dinwiddie. Lin returned in mid-December, was injured again, and didn’t get back until the end of February.

Dinwiddie has said he’s always been confident, always believed in his talent. But to Atkinson, he wasn’t necessarily playing that way.

“Indecisive,” said Atkinson. “And when a guy’s indecisive, is he really a point guard? Does he really want to run this team? He was playing not to make a mistake, instead of being aggressive and confident.”

That was a product of his experience in Detroit, where Dinwiddie didn’t feel like he had the luxury of making a mistake and playing through it.

“The biggest thing this coaching staff has done for me,” said Dinwiddie, “besides obviously helping me develop skillwise, they’ve also just basically said, ‘look, we believe in you. We believe in your talent. You’ve got to go out there and play.’ I miss a shot, they’re like, ‘shoot the next one.’

”Sometimes you’ll see Kenny yelling at me, and oftentimes it’s telling me, ‘shoot the ball. Go get a layup.’ He’s not yelling at me saying what were you thinking, what’s wrong with you. It’s, ‘Spencer, go shoot the ball.’ Whenever you have somebody, that’s their message, that’s what they’re preaching, go be aggressive, go make plays, it really unleashes you as a player.”

The start of the 2017-18 season has featured Dinwiddie unleashed, and making a greater impact than anybody expected. With the acquisition of D’Angelo Russell over the summer to pair with Lin in the backcourt, there appeared to be little room in the rotation for Dinwiddie. During preseason, Atkinson expressed a desire to have either Russell or Lin on the court at all times.

But on opening night, there was Dinwiddie on the floor for 16 minutes against the Pacers. To earn a spot in the rotation, he had to have played well enough for Atkinson to be willing to cut into the minutes for Lin and Russell a little bit. That was the indicator of how far Dinwiddie had come.

“He gave us no choice,” said Atkinson. “I knew for us, when you’re looking at your top eight players, he’s in there. And he earned it. There’s a certain trust when you see a guy do the work. He played Summer League when he didn’t have to. He had enough years in the league where he could have said, ‘hey I don’t want to play.’ And then he played Summer League. That showed a lot to us. It came time to make the lineup, we’ve got to play him. We’ve got to find minutes for him, even though it’s going to be on the wing position. He left us no choice really.”

When Lin was injured on a drive to the hoop in the second half against the Pacers, Dinwiddie’s season changed. He took on a bigger role as the primary backup point guard, and then stepped into the starting lineup while D’Angelo Russell was sidelined. By Thanksgiving, Dinwiddie was playing 24.3 minutes per game while averaging 11.7 points and 5.7 assists and shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. Dinwiddie scored a career-high 25 points against Utah, and with his ability to avoid turnovers was among the NBA’s top five in assist to turnover ratio.

“He’s got the physical tools. He’s got the skill level,” said Atkinson. “He’s smart. He’s young. It’s like he’s got everything in his favor. But I think the hardest step to make now is that next step, to really break through. He’s kind of poked a hole in the ceiling. Now, to bust through it with both fists and really break out, that’s a harder one. But how diligent he is, and it’s not just on the floor.

“He eats up film, he eats up the performance. There’s no days off for him. He’s got a smart approach to development. He doesn’t overdo it. As much as anybody we have, he understands the balance you need in terms of improving. He just gets it.”

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