Brooklyn Nets will open preseason against the New York Knicks
The Brooklyn Nets announced their preseason schedule on Wednesday where they’ll play four games, all staying in the state of New York.
The Brooklyn Nets will open their 2017-18 season with a four-game preseason schedule beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 3 in a matchup against cross-town rival New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
This will be the first time we see the new-look Nets in action, which includes two games at Barclays Center and one game at NYCB Live, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum where the Nets’ G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, will play this upcoming season.
With the new NBA schedule set to come out in the next week or so, this will be a shortened preseason, as more regular season games will be spread out, eliminating back-to-backs and four games in five nights.
With a Brooklyn Nets roster full of new faces, most notably Allen Crabbe, D’Angelo Russell, DeMarre Carroll and Timofey Mozgov, it will be interesting to see how Brooklyn’s pace-and-space offense looks with these new key cogs to the team.
Surely, head coach Kenny Atkinson and his entire staff will begin testing out lineups and rotations, as the latest acquisition of swingman Allen Crabbe now has Nets fans wondering what the starting five looks like.
Will DeMarre Caroll slide over to the 4 spot? Sean Marks believes it could be a possibility:
“I think he [DeMarre Carroll] has played some 4, so for us, yeah, I think he can play the 4,” Marks said at a recent press conference introducing Allen Crabbe.
With a lineup currently looking like Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell at the guard spots, Allen Crabbe and DeMarre Caroll at the forwards, and Timofey Mozgov manning the paint, it certainly looks like the Nets are really spreading the floor, allowing Lin and Russell to play some two-man game with Mozgov, while having Crabbe on the wing ready to drain a catch-and-shoot three.
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“He comes with length. He’s a versatile player. I think he can develop his game as a pick-and-roll player, but I think also he’ll fit in nicely with the guys we currently have on the roster,” Marks told New York Post beat writer Brian Lewis last week at a Nets press conference.
“I think we’re obviously making steps in a direction that hopefully everyone can see. We are going younger, we’ve got a youth movement here, and we’ve got guys that we feel like are versatile and talented and still have a lot of upside to go,” Marks concluded by saying.
That first opportunity to see this new product will come on Oct. 3. The Nets will certainly be an interesting team to watch now, with an impending player option for Jeremy Lin and Trevor Booker‘s contract up after the conclusion of the 2017-18 season. Will that affect rotations? Will D’Angelo Russell slowly take over the starting point guard role if the Nets opt to shop Lin around the deadline?
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One thing is for sure, the Nets are intrigued by this backcourt, both consisting of guys willing to play both on and off the ball. Let’s see if there are any signs of things to come when the Nets tip it off in early October.