Entering his second season with the Nets, Danny Wolf has been reviewing last year\u2019s training camp footage.<\/p>\n
The difference, he says, is \u201cnight and day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you kind of look up and down the roster and re-watching stuff from last year\u2019s training camp to now, it\u2019s a different brand of basketball,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot more size, a lot more strength in all areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooklyn gets its first chance to put those changes to work Tuesday, when it visits the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center for its preseason opener. The Nets want their stronger roster to play aggressively, create easier shots and get into their offense faster.<\/p>\n
The boards offer one place to evaluate those gains. Brooklyn averaged a league-low 39.3 rebounds last season. Wolf sees a more physical group throughout camp, while Day\u2019Ron Sharpe has pointed to added strength from Egor D\u00ebmin and Noah Clowney alongside the arrival of Julius Randle.<\/p>\n
Sharpe has worked out with Randle in Dallas and watched him overpower defenders in Brooklyn\u2019s practices. He envisions opponents having to account for his own physical play alongside Randle and Michael Porter Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, he\u2019s playing on offense, he\u2019s just bumping guys out of the way and getting to the rim,\u201d Sharpe said.<\/p>\n
Randle wants to put those advantages to use across Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s offense. As soon as he learned he was coming to Brooklyn, he requested film. He was drawn to the opportunities to grab a rebound and push the ball, initiate dribble handoffs and make plays out of short rolls.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez believes this could be Randle\u2019s best playmaking season. The appeal for the coach is having several ways to deploy him; for Randle, it\u2019s creating for teammates while moving around the floor instead of repeatedly attacking a set defense with the ball in his hands.<\/p>\n
Porter already has an idea of how he\u2019ll benefit. He\u2019s described Randle getting downhill, drawing defenders and pitching the ball back for an open 3-pointer. The speed of Randle\u2019s passes, Porter said, can give him enough room to catch and shoot.<\/p>\n
Early in camp, the two had been competing on opposite teams. Tuesday will be the official start of their developing partnership, with the younger players also trying to turn their added strength into more paint touches.<\/p>\n
Brooklyn ranked 25th in pace last season at 97.1 possessions per 48 minutes, per Basketball-Reference. Porter has called playing faster an emphasis, acknowledging practice can replicate only so much. Against Charlotte, how quickly the Nets advance the ball and get into their actions will be worth watching.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez has kept the instruction manageable so players can understand their assignments and execute without hesitation. Josh Minott described the preparation becoming more technical after a summer focused on conditioning and effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re trying to play smarter instead of harder,\u201d Minott said. \u201cStill playing hard as hell, but now it\u2019s more just implementing installs, all that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. will miss the opener with an ankle injury, and Joshua Jefferson is out with lower back stiffness. Everyone else is available. Brown has progressed to contact drills with coaches, and the plan is for him to play at some point during preseason.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez expects to use about 15 players initially while managing workloads, then gradually increase those workloads as preseason progresses. A typical rotation uses nine to 11 players, he said, leaving difficult choices ahead.<\/p>\n
Which players get possessions alongside Randle and Porter, and how they use those opportunities, will help establish the competition\u2019s direction. Fern\u00e1ndez wants intensity in whatever minutes he assigns. Roles will remain open to change throughout the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been competing against your teammates in practice here and now you get to play against somebody else, but you\u2019re still competing for minutes, for rotation minutes, starting minutes, all that stuff,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said.<\/p>\n
Wolf said he hasn\u2019t played since late March, an unusually long layoff he\u2019s used to strengthen his body and sharpen his skills. Tuesday brings the opportunity he has been waiting for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think everyone\u2019s just excited,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cI mean, just get to see another face and there\u2019s nothing better than going against another team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering his second season with the Nets, Danny Wolf has been reviewing last year\u2019s training camp footage. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,135322,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-365124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-nets-preseason-opener","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}