1. Jarrett Allen’s defense encouraging
Jarrett Allen had a solid rookie year for the Brooklyn Nets last season, topping all NBA first-year players with 88 blocked shots.
Wiz of Awes
On Monday night, the big man from Texas showed some of what we can look forward to in 2018-19, finishing with five blocked shots and 12 rebounds.
Defensively, he was very solid, protecting the rim and giving Brooklyn an added dimension against the pick-and-roll by being a step quicker than the other Nets’ big men in getting to the ball-handler on pull-up shots.
On the offensive end, he’s still going to be a work in progress. In 26 minutes, Allen was 3-for-6 from the floor and finished with eight points. He threw down a nice alley-oop dunk on a lob from Semaj Christon, but also turned the ball over four times.
There was some hesitation in his decision-making with the ball and Allen at times did a poor job recognizing when he had a driving lane and when he needed to kick the ball back out.
Some of that could have been unfamiliarity with his teammates, but it is something to look for moving forward.