Atkinson got a bunch of yute and no-names to play yard and develop, and the team to pull together. Worked great until they brought in the gimpy prima donnas.
Vets played a good amount of minutes.
DeMarre came off the bench for 25 mins per. Ed Davis was a bench guy for 18 mins a night. just 9 starts between them. Dudley 20 mins, started 25 of 59 games he played. Crabbe started 20 of 43 games he played.
So all of their vets totaled just 54 starts. And I assume some of those starts overlapped, so more than half of their games were likely played without one vet starting.
Though I'm not sure I see the point anyway. Knix have some vets. Randle is a starter, and role players Elf and Bullock probably will be back. And they will be in the rotation, similar to what Atkinson had with BKY.
And he had a star in Russell.
Well, Tangelo became a star, if that's what he is, in BKY under Atkinson. That's where he became a 20 Pt scorer and started shooting above average on his 3's.
Minus that star he went back to -6 in W-L
Kyrie, Tangelo's replacement, managed only 20 games and was partially dinged up for even some of that score.
LaVert missed nearly two months, and then had a very rough January while he worked himself back into shape/rhythm. Since LaVert got his mojo back, the Nets were 12-8 from Feb 1st til the season was called. Two of those were OT losses to BOS & PHI, plus a 1 point loss @TOR, while beating TOR, IND and LAL.
LaVert was pretty terrific in that 20 game stretch, shooting over 40% on 3's and averaging around 23 / 5 / 5.
Injuries aren't the coaches fault.
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