7. Two fun, multi-positional young guys grow in Brooklyn
Look: I realize you're not going to watch the Nets. Given the options on League Pass every night, you probably shouldn't. They have the worst record in the league. Even hard-core fans haven't heard of half their players. They are still years, plural, from digging out of the Boston trade disaster.
But in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Caris LeVert, the Nets have two versatile kiddos flashing more playmaking chops than anyone expected at this point. That is the value of tossing young guys into a free-flowing system where everyone is allowed to attack scrambling defenses off the bounce. Players get to test their limits, and in some cases, discover they can do things at the NBA level that were supposedly closed off to them.
The Nets are almost fun when they throw LeVert and Hollis-Jefferson out there together, usually at the two forward spots, and let them explore.
They can both switch across at least three positions on defense, and Kenny Atkinson, Brooklyn's coach, has used both at power forward. They even unleash Hollis-Jefferson as a skinny, pointy-elbowed pick-and-roll dive man when Justin Hamilton spaces the floor as the nominal center.
LeVert is the more enticing prospect. He's bigger, with a smoother handle and jumper. Hollis-Jefferson's shot is still busted, and all indications are the Nets will listen when teams call about him, league sources say. But he's a tenacious defender who is better than you think at weirdo herky-jerky drives on offense.
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