Brooklyn Nets: A look at the guard rotation for next season

With Jeremy Lin coming back from injury and Spencer Dinwiddie making a case to return to the starting lineup, there are a lot of mouths to feed in the Brooklyn Nets’ guard rotation.

For once, the Brooklyn Nets have considerable depth in one area: the backcourt. After a wonderful breakout season from Spencer Dinwiddie, he must now compete for minutes with D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin, the two players he previously filled in for.

As I’ve made clear before, I don’t typically care for positional delineations. However, many players on the Nets roster have similar skill-sets that can give them the “point guard” nomination. For some teams, that is considered a problem.

Not in coach Kenny Atkinson’s system. He would run five “point guards” if they were physically capable of switching onto bigs. The multi-faceted system he runs doesn’t just allow for more ball-handlers; it requires them. This is why players like Caris LeVert and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson were given spurts at the nominal “1” as well; having too many playmakers is the opposite of an issue.

To simplify this conundrum, I have researched the positional distribution of Brooklyn’s most used lineups from the 2017-18 season. This allows me to see who spent most of their time at either the 1 or 2, and how likely they are to do so again next season. Jeremy Lin’s player option for 2018 will be crucial to this discussion, but it’s unlikely he will opt in after missing most of the season.