Brooklyn Nets: Summer League Grades and Recap

The Brooklyn Nets went into the Summer League looking for one thing in particular: growth. Head coach Kenny Atkinson made his coaching debut with the team and Brooklyn hoped to see collective growth as a unit with him at the helm. The play was inconsistent, but overall the signs are encouraging.

RECAP:

The Brooklyn Nets went 3-2 overall in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers. Their two losses came at the hands of the Washington Wizards and Cavaliers in the LVSL tournament.

In the initial round, Brooklyn started out by defeating Cleveland and Atlanta, in solid team wins that were spearheaded by good defense. They allowed an average of just 69 points per game in those first two outings. The third and final game of the initial round was a hard-fought, two point loss against the Wizards. This performance landed Brooklyn the sixth seed out of the 24 teams participating in Vegas for the elimination tournament part. In the tournament part of the Summer League, Brooklyn reached the quarterfinals after beating Philadelphia in the first round. In the quarterfinals, the Nets lost a nail-biting overtime game to Cleveland.

Despite a modest 3-2 record, the two losses the Nets suffered were close, competitive battles that came right down the final seconds. Each game they played was competitive and their youngsters got plenty of experience in competitive, late game situations.

As a whole, the Nets saw solid, though a tad inconsistent performances from their main guys. Chris McCullough and Isaiah Whitehead were particularly inconsistent, though each showed plenty of flashes of real upside. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson showed off his stingy defense that Nets fans grew to love last season, and also saw a lot more time at the point than expected. The last rostered player to play was Summer League veteran Sean Kilpatrick, who led the team by averaging 19.3 points per game.

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