Brooklyn Nets: Battles for Starting and Backup Position
Point Guard
One of the most unstable positions on the roster during the 2016-2017 season was point guard. The assumed starting point guard, Jeremy Lin, suffered through injuries most of the season and saw the floor for only 36 games. In those games, he showed the ability to run the offense with ease and had the team playing competitive basketball by the end of the season.
This season, Lin is coming in healthy and is the teams’ starter yet again. He does not have a long injury history, but if he has any relapses then the Nets have options. The two young point guards behind him are Spencer Dinwiddie and Isaiah Whitehead.
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Dinwiddie was brought into a tough situation last season. He was asked to run an offense he never played in with an inexperienced team. He made the best of the situation and improved in each game. His minutes in crunch time for most of the Nets wins showed his value to the team.
Whitehead started off the season expecting to be in the D-League, now the G-League . After injuries to Lin and Greivis Vasquez, he found himself playing meaningful minutes as a rookie. Turnover prone and streaky early in the year, he improved enough to become one of the most reliable players on the team by the end of the season. The spark he gave the team off the bench helped the unit to be one of the best in the league.
The starting position seems to be locked in for Jeremy Lin. The battle is behind at backup. Unfortunately for Dinwiddie, he will probably be the odd man out on the depth chart. Although he did well last season, Whitehead is a draft pick and will likely end up getting majority of the backup minutes.