DETROIT — After months of going against each other in the gym, the Nets are convinced they have improved individually.
Wednesday, they start trying to prove they have grown as a team, when then open the regular season against the Pistons.
“It’s definitely a lot of excitement, a lot different than the preseason,” Caris LeVert said. “They’re real bullets now, so can’t wait to get going tomorrow and have a great start to the season.”
The rising young wing has drawn raves from teammates, coaches and scouts as the most improved. And the revelation Tuesday that DeMarre Carroll was having ankle surgery all but assured LeVert of a spot in the lineup for the indefinite future.
But for the Nets to improve on their 28-54 mark from last season, they’ll need their other gifted youngsters, such as Jarret Allen and D’Angelo Russell, to take a step forward, too.
Allen’s test will be rebounding and holding up against big bruisers like Detroit’s Andre Drummond. The center’s 27 rebounds against the Nets on Feb. 7 were second-most in the NBA last season, behind Dwight Howard’s 32-board Master class against Brooklyn two weeks later.
“It’s a hell of a challenge,” Allen said. “He’s one of the best bigs in the league, almost twice my size, so I have to learn the small ways just to get around him, get physical with him. So it’s going to be a great challenge.”
Russell will need to prove he can guide a team to victory, help it grind out wins in all of those close games the Nets found ways to lose last season.
“I want to win more. I feel like those games that come down, that we didn’t win, I could’ve played a better part in it,” Russell said. “Good teams in this league always find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose. If we can come together as a team and … find a way to win those games that we lost last year, our buzz will be different, and our outcome will be different as well.“Experience is what gets guys over the hump. Bumping your head a few times, learning that and being a professional allows you to take that next step. We’ve got a lot of guys who have attacked being professional on and off the court.”
In clutch moments (up or down five in the final five minutes) the Nets had the second-worst margin (minus-47), and lost the second-most close games (31) in the league. The aftertaste of those nail-biters fueled their offseason work.
“The endgame situations has a lot to do with experience. We earned a lot of it last year,” LeVert said. “We’re a young team but we have a lot of experience in close-game situations, so we know what to expect now.”
Richard Jefferson, who helped the Nets to consecutive NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003, has joined the YES Network as the team’s game and studio analyst. His first assignment will be as a studio host Wednesday night, his debut as a game analyst will be Oct. 24 versus the Cavaliers.
