Every kid and person young at heart from Bay Ridge to Brownsville will be glued to the TV next week to watch D’Angelo Russell, Caris LeVert & company lead the Brooklyn Nets into the NBA’s playoffs.
That after the Nets proved many in the NBA universe wrong with their 108-96 win over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday and in clinching their first playoff berth since 2015.
At the start of the year the oddsmakers, media, and probably the entire league predicted the Nets to win under 30 games this season (Vegas at 32 and a half) with a 28.6 percent chance of making the postseason.
Now with a 41-40 record the Nets are shockingly just waiting to see who they will face in the first round on the NBA playoffs.
“Like I told them, no one believed we could do it,” said Head Coach Kenny Atkinson, who also never expected to reach the postseason this soon. “Those are the most beautiful moments in sports. I’ve never won an NBA championship, but next to that, we’ve proven everybody wrong: The predictions, even their head coach. They proved me wrong. They’re much better than I thought they were going to be. I didn’t know that tightness until I got to know that group.”
It has been a seesaw kind of season for the Nets, who behind LeVert––in what seemed to be his breakout year––had a surprising 6-8 start before his devastating ankle injury during their November 12, matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Then the eight game losing streak happened, and any glimmer of hope this team might have had all but died. Or so it seemed. The Nets followed the losing streak with a seven straight wins, which was followed by a 33-22 record for the remainder of the season.Despite the injuries, the losing streaks and some inconsistent play, Brooklyn stayed afloat.
“I think being resilient and getting through that tough stretch of games––you know the 8 games in a row––and the ability to get off the floor when you’re knocked down has been the story of our team. So Whether it’s been that kind of stretch or a bad loss, this team has always found a way to bounce back and I love how we’ve reacted to tough situations,” exclaimed Atkinson.
The resiliency has been obvious, but the Nets aren’t in the playoffs without the development of their young core, more specifically their All Star guard Russell who went from one of their least reliable starters in the first 25 games, to carrying the load over the remainder of the season.
This season Russell is averaging 21 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds a game, while shooting 43 percent from the field. The first time All Star is also shooting 36 percent from behind the three point arch and is ranked in the top ten of three points made for the season.
Even with the Nets finally having a player who could be a centerpiece of the future, credit has to go to General Manager Sean Marks for putting together a roster of veterans who have infused young players like Russell with more than on the court.
By bringing in players like DeMarre Carroll, Joe Harris, Ed Davis, Jared Dudley, and Shabazz Napier, Marks has put together a roster of shrewd, gritty veterans who take pride in doing the little things––that don’t make the boxscore––to win games.
In improving his team around the margins Marks also made sure this moment in the season would be difficult for the teams they’d be facing. Whether that was Marks intention is not certain, but when you look at the roster construction of other teams in the bottom of the east their role players and veterans are not as solid as what the Brooklyn Nets have put together.
It’s also given Russell, LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen and even rookie standout Rodions Kuruks teammates to look to when things get difficult and room to grow and know who they are on this team.
“We have intelligent and savvy vets in Davis, Dudley, Carroll and myself that understand it’s not going to take one game to get things where they need to be. It may take us ten games or 20 games for teams to understand who they are and individual players to understand their roles, but within those games you realize there is a lot of sacrifice and believing in each other,” said Napier, who signed with Brooklyn during the offseason.
Making the playoffs seems ahead of schedule for Marks, Atkinson and the Brooklyn Nets, but what seems to be working exactly like their GM planned is the unity that has emerged within the locker rooms of the Barclays Center.
““From a players perspective when guys start believing that they can be successful and knowing that feeling of winning it becomes contagious and you start playing for that feeling and playing for each other,” Marks told the Kings County Politics. “It’s when you do the little things that maybe go unnoticed and should go unnoticed that you begin to see a change in culture, because those are just habits and it becomes who you are. When that happens it becomes contagious, and it is fun to see, but more importantly when that happens you being to see results.”
The result is a playoff berth, but the impact of this season could be everlasting for this franchise, and the fans feel it, the front office feels it, the coach feels it, but more importantly the 14 guys in the black and white uniforms feel it.
“It’s important to us and when I am looking at the bench I see guys leap of the bench to congratulate their teammates after a shot, or defensive play. You can’t force that. But this team more than teams in the past, it has more of a collegial spirit and it’s the combination of players,” gushed Atkinson. “They’re just a good group of guys and there is spirit in that locker room and bench.”
With just one more game left––against the Miami Heat–– the Brooklyn Nets are playing for their seeding position and will face either the Toronto Raptors(57-24) or the Philadelphia 76ers (50-30). The 2019 NBA Playoffs begin on Saturday April 13.
