Kenny Atkinson is aware of a factor or two about what the present-day Nets are going via.
Again in 2016, Atkinson took over as head coach of a rebuilding Brooklyn group that wasn’t too far faraway from the times of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson.
“We just threw a bunch of guys out there, and they made a ton of mistakes, and we didn’t win hardly any games,” Atkinson, now the pinnacle coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, mentioned earlier than going through the Nets at Barclays Heart on Friday night time.
“I think of Joe Harris. Joe Harris was, like, a disaster the first year. Like, ‘Can this guy play in the league?’ There were a bunch of guys in that bucket. We had the luxury of being able to throw them out there, though. There’s no better development road than that.”
The Nets went 20-62 throughout that 2016-17 season, however the rising pains turned out to be essential for a younger core that included Harris, Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie.
Brooklyn made the playoffs by the third season of Atkinson’s tenure.
Atkinson believes immediately’s Nets, of their second season beneath head coach Jordi Fernández, are in a comparable state of affairs.
At June’s NBA draft, the Nets grew to become the primary group in league historical past to make 5 first-round picks — Egor Demin, Ben Saraf, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf — and so they saved all 5 gamers.
The Nets haven’t made the playoffs since 2022-23, which is the season they parted with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant earlier than the commerce deadline.
“This seems similar here, where they’re like, ‘OK, the best way to do this is to get these guys in an NBA game and take their lumps, and they’ll learn.’ And then year two they’ll get a little better, and year three you hope you’re in the playoff hunt,” Atkinson mentioned. “I would think that’s the road map.”
INJURY UPDATES
The Barclays Heart debuts of Powell and Wolf should wait.
Each missed Friday night time’s dwelling opener resulting from ankle sprains, with Jordi Fernández describing them as day-to-day.
“We’re not concerned, but day-to-day,” Fernández mentioned.
Requested what grade of sprains Powell and Wolf are coping with, Fernández replied, “We don’t grade.”
Wolf additionally missed the Nets’ season-opening loss in Charlotte with a left ankle sprain, whereas Powell sprained his proper ankle in the course of the fourth quarter of that recreation after scoring two factors in seven minutes.
GAMBLING SCANDAL
Thursday’s arrests of Chauncey Billups, Terry Rozier and Damon Jones resulting from gambling-related allegations had been a speaking level throughout each coaches’ pregame press conferences at Barclays Heart.
Billups, the Portland Path Blazers’ head coach, and Rozier, a guard for the Miami Warmth, had been each positioned on rapid go away by their groups.
Jones, a former participant and coach, shouldn’t be presently employed by an NBA group.
“I’m just gonna stay away from that and not comment on it,” Atkinson mentioned. “It’s not my area of expertise.”
HOF BOUND
Mr. Whammy is headed to the Corridor of Fame.
The Nets mega-fan, whose actual title is Bruce Reznick, and his late spouse Judy Reznick, who died in 2023, can be added subsequent 12 months to the James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery on the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
Mr. Whammy, 89, has been a Nets season ticket holder for almost three many years, and his hand-written indicators and taunts to opposing free-throw shooters are a staple at Barclays Heart.
