National Basketball Association

Brooklyn Nets Weekly Roundup: Preseason Week 3

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:27 p.m. ET

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Oct 11, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; Miami Heat guard Tyler Johnson (8) collides into Brooklyn Nets forward Justin Hamilton (41) during the second half at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

The Brooklyn Nets just completed their final week of preseason play. With the regular season starting next week, now is the time to get caught up with the team. Here is everything you may have missed from the last week of preseason.

Top Stories This Week

1. Nets Fall to Celtics Once Again

After failing to hold of the Boston Celtics last Thursday, the Nets fell to them again. This time the Celtics made the win much more convincing.

2. Nets Cut Four Players

With the season approaching the Nets need to trim down their roster to at least 15. Check out what guys will not be joining this years Nets team in the season opener.

3. Nets Get No Love From 2016-17 GM Survey

As with every year, the GM survey for 2016-2017 outcomes has arrived. To no surprise the Nets were not very active on the surveys. But there was a small surprise regarding the Nets offseason.

4. J.R. Smith Denies Being Racist Toward Jeremy Lin

Is there some beef between J.R. Smith and Jeremy Lin? Don’t forget the two were teammates back when Lin came onto the scene. Smith recently denied ever being racist towards Lin. For the full story check out the link above.

5. Jeremy Lin Discusses Why He Signed With Nets

Easily, Jeremy Lin was the Nets’ biggest signing this offseason. But what compelled him to join the Brooklyn Nets? Luckily we have it covered.

6. Anonymous NBA Scouts’ Take on the Nets

What else is new? Another person taking shots at the Nets because of how bad they are. Read what NBA scouts had to say about the Brooklyn Nets franchise.

7. Nets Fall to Knicks in Preseason Finale

Another loss on a disappointing preseason. What can the Nets take way from their final game with the New York Knicks?

8. Nets Waive Yogi Ferrell

With the season so close the Nets had some hard decisions to make on who would be last guy to be cut. Yogi Ferrell was given a shot at the end of the game Thursday to prove his worth. Unfortunately he made a big mistake in crunch time. Now he is no longer with the team.

9. ESPN Ranks Nets’ Roster as Third-Worst in Sports

Wooooooo! We are not last for once! In all seriousness the Nets really need to find a way to improve the team in coming years. Being at the bottom is not good when there are no draft picks coming in.

Want your voice heard? Join the Nothin' But Nets team!

Nets Record for the Week: 0-2

Nets 99 – Celtics 120

Nets 111 – Knicks 116

Thoughts

With the preseason finally wrapped up, two things that standout are the Nets rotation and game plan. The Nets finally trimmed down their roster to 15 players. This means no more experimenting with guys deep in the bench. This should help improve the next problem the Nets have, their execution. Players are still trying to adjust and learn Atkinson’s offensive system. Many times it was obvious players did not know where to be. Hopefully with a smaller group the players can come together and understand the system like the back of their hands.

Oct 20, 2016; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin (7) handles the ball against New York Knicks guard Brandon Jennings (3) during second half at Barclays Center. The New York Knicks defeated the Brooklyn Nets 116-111.
Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Player of the Week: Jeremy Lin

Stat Averages for the Week

18.5 points, 7.5 assists, 6 turnovers, 69% FG, 50% 3pt FG

Lin has continued to impress fans with his ability to score. He is scoring very efficiently. This week he almost shot 70 percent from the field. That is a number normally only associated with big men. Guards are usually expected to shoot anywhere from 40 to 50 percent from the field.

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Also, Lin’s points took a huge spike this week. 18.5 points per game is much higher than anyone would ask of Lin. He also had an increase in assists this week as well. This could be a result in Lin either looking for teammates more often or the Nets system finally working better. Either way it will benefit both Lin and the team if he can stay around the six assist mark this season.

Again, the only concern with Lin is his turnovers. He can be careless when dribbling the ball sometimes resulting in high turnover numbers. If he can get his turnovers down, he would be very effective when on the floor.

Don’t expect these averages to become a standard for Lin when the regular season rolls around. For now it is good to see he is capable of having big performances. As Lin stated, “It’s preseason, so you can take all (the stats) and throw them out the window. I don’t care about it at all. It doesn’t matter.”

Oct 11, 2016; Miami, FL, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson reacts to a play during the second half against the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Takeaways From the Preseason

With the preseason wrapped up, we can now look at it as a whole. Here is where the Nets ranked in the league during the preseason. 18th in scoring, 28th in rebounding, 17th in assists, 18th in turnovers, and last in opponents points per game. Based off of these numbers, the Nets have the potential to be a fairly average team in the league this season. They hovered around the middle of the pack in every category.

The two main problems the Nets have are rebounding and defense. The rebounding may be an issue for the Nets all season long considering they do not have an elite rebounder on the team. Rebounding will have to be a team effort making sure that each player boxes out their match up. An even bigger concern than their rebounding is their defense. Brooklyn allowed 111.2 points per game during the preseason. This is a problem because the Nets do not have the offensive fire power to out score opponents. If this does not change in the regular season the Nets may struggle to reach their win mark from last season.

These problems will continue unless Sean Marks can find a trade that will help the Nets in those two categories. For now this will continue to be a problem for the Nets.

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