3 reasons the Brooklyn Nets can win over 28.5 games in 2018-19

1. D’Angelo Russell’s takeoff

One of Brooklyn’s projected starters happens to be the most crucial part of this rebuild. Through all his flaws and shortcomings throughout his tumultuous career, D’Angelo Russel still has superstar potential. No one else on the roster legitimately has that upside, barring a miraculous leap from one of the others.

To truly compete in today’s NBA, you need a star. A bucket-getter. A tone-setter. Russell has to make a leap towards that echelon, for his sake (he is a restricted free agent next summer) and the team’s. Without “The Guy,” Brooklyn will be lucky to win 30 games, even though it almost did without one last season.

For that to happen, Russell needs to improve in a few areas. For one, he is widely cited as not being the best ball-handler. He must become a very good one to be a great guard in this league, and not just average in this department. Ditto as a shot creator; he has shown flashes of bucket-getting ability, but not enough to carry the load on a nightly basis.

Furthermore, he needs to be good at all these things simultaneously; his flashes of greatness in varying departments is not good enough to lead a competitive NBA team just yet.

The Eastern Conference is worse without LeBron James in it, but several teams are still a lot better than the Nets as currently constructed. The easiest way for them to leapfrog 8-seed dwellers like the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets is for Russell to become “The Guy.”

At worst, the glut of solid-to-good role players will keep the Nets afloat, which should get them 29 wins without much resistance. But to get to that next level, it all has to come together — for Russell and the team as a whole.