Young Brooklyn Nets Players That Need to Rise to the Challenge

The Brooklyn Nets have been plagued by injuries again this season at point guard. To shoulder the load, the team will look to its younger players to step up their games.

Brooklyn Nets’ fans accept that this year is still a part of the rebuild and that wins will be hard to come by. The team is young and mistake prone, but are improving with every game they play.

With a season ending injury to Jeremy Lin and a knee injury to D’Angelo Russell that will sideline him for an indefinite time, the Nets are short on ball handlers. Spencer Dinwiddie stepped up last year for the Nets, and seems poised to do it again. But even he is battling nagging injuries.

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The players that are left to handle the ball are second year guards Caris LeVert and Isaiah Whitehead. These players were challenged last year to do run the offense during their rookie seasons, and what came with it was plenty of turnovers and mistakes.

With a season under their belt, when LeVert and Whitehead are called upon to do it again, it should merit better results. But if the end of the Utah Jazz match-up is what we must look forward to, then it will be rocky.

Russell went down with a knee injury late in the Jazz game and the Nets were already without the services of Dinwiddie. The brunt of running the offense then fell to LeVert and Whitehead. LeVert took the ball up the floor on the next possession, and turned it over right away.

Whitehead and LeVert combined for five turnovers on the game in 34 combined minutes. If they are to take over the responsibility of running the offense, then they need to value the ball and have less turnovers.

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These aren’t the only two players that need to step up for the Nets to be successful. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson must elevate his game as well.

Hollis-Jefferson is playing the best basketball of his career. But he needs to do more, especially now with the absence of both Lin and Russell. His play needs to translate to leadership and wins. He has the physical gifts to take over games on both ends of the floor and he must begin to do it on a nightly basis.

Whitehead needs to improve, if he wants to stop the roller coaster of going back and forth from Brooklyn to Long Island. He has an attacking mentality on offense, but this often leads to turnovers. He needs to learn how to play under control and run the offense while making everyone around him better.

And lastly, is the man that fans anointed as the savior all last season, Caris LeVert. Since he first came onto the floor his rookie year, fans have loved his defensive prowess and scoring ability. The honeymoon is now over, and he needs to start living up to the hype. LeVert can’t have any more sub 10 point outings if he is to be the next star of the franchise.

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It is time for these young Nets players to step their games up and help the team fight through adversity. Opposing teams won’t feel bad for the Nets as they battle through injuries. This will be a test for LeVert, Whitehead and Hollis-Jefferson. Whether they pass or fail will determine if they are truly the future of the franchise.