Life off the ball: Nets players set to align with the stars

Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot gets it.

The French wing is a byproduct of the vaunted player development system in Brooklyn, posting career-highs of 15 points on 50-40-90 club numbers in the Orlando bubble. For reference: He had never averaged more than seven points per game in any season prior.

But last season is just that: last season.

The Nets are hoping to evolve from pretender to contender, entering a three-year window where anything short of a championship will be cast aside as a disappointment. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are as healthy as they’ll be, and Caris LeVert is set to make his debut as the third star of a team hopeful of winning a championship.

For Luwawu-Cabarrot, and other fringe rotation players on the roster like him, it’s get in where you fit in around the team’s lead stars.

It means sacrifice, deference, and buy-in to what will help the team as a whole.

“The way the team is built, I know and I believe that I’m not going to be on the ball, with the ball that much on the court,” Luwawu-Cabarrot said on a conference call on Friday. “Catch and shoot, rhythm shots, running in transition, get some dribble shots, all kinds of stuff. Pull over behind the screen, all these types of things.”

For Spencer Dinwiddie, last season was an outlier.

Yes, he posted career-highs of nearly 21 points and seven assists per game, but that was never supposed to be the case. Dinwiddie was supposed to come off the bench and be the sixth man, a role he has both embraced and thrived in.

Then LeVert went down with a dislocated thumb, and Irving got hurt shortly after, suffering a right shoulder impingement that eventually required surgery.

In the blink of an eye, the sixth man became the man — and he acquitted himself capably in that role, too. Had it not been for his heroics, the Nets may have wound up on the outside looking into the Orlando bubble.

“Kyrie and Caris (LeVert) were supposed to lead us, which — they just happened to get hurt,” Dinwiddie told reporters on a conference call on Friday. “My role is my role. You try to do the best you can in every situation that you’re in.”

Dinwiddie’s situation will not mirror last season’s. It projects to be less like his run that kept the Nets afloat in the playoff hunt, and more like his role supplementing Irving in the 20 games he played in an injury-riddled season.

On this roster, Dinwiddie envisions himself as the team’s Draymond Green, the Golden State star who notably does everything it takes for his Warriors to win: move the ball, take charges, defend multiple positions and only shoot high percentage shots.

Reminder: This is a man who believes when he gets hot, he can shoot the three like Steph Curry. This is the man who hit the game-winner in Los Angeles before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“If we’re going to liken ourselves to Golden State and the special things they were able to do, just kind of that glue, that multi-purpose guy,” he said on Friday. “I’ve worn a lot of different roles for this team. Off the bench, starting, closer, point, off the ball, whatever it may be. So, that’s kind of how I view myself — the multi-purpose utility guy who helps keep the guys together, trying to make the sacrifice plays to help the team win.”

Roles largely have not been discussed in Brooklyn, and for good reason. Teams are still clearing Phase 2 of their return to training camp. Many have yet to have a full team workout or practice, only abiding by the league’s health and safety protocols of a max of four players in the facility at a time.

Here’s another good reason roles have yet to be defined around the Nets: GM Sean Marks said he is open to tinkering with the roster — in small ways or with big, sweeping moves — if it helps the team win a championship. Marks, head coach Steve Nash and the Nets coaching staff, however, won’t know what’s missing until they see their team play together in camp.

In truth, the Nets are uncertain. Other than Durant and Irving, no one is sure of their standing on the roster — roles, or trades.

“At this point, everything is in the air. I haven’t been told what is going to happen, I haven’t been told what’s not going to happen,” Jarrett Allen told reporters of his role. “So, what I have been told is just to get my work in, try to improve my game as much as possible and get ready for the season coming up.”

Then, of course, there’s the elephant in the room: A championship rotation rarely goes beyond, at most, 10 deep. The Nets have 16 players who could command legitimate playing time on any team.

Some players don’t care about roles.

“The thing about me, man, is that I just want to be on the floor. I really don’t mind if it is the three or the four,” Taurean Prince said. “I feel like I can help win ball games at either position. So it is just whatever is best for the team and with the new faces coming in, guys just need to buy in and do what they do best.”

If Caris LeVert isn’t traded, he’ll be the team’s third star. Third stars traditionally sacrifice the most.

Just ask Chris Bosh and Kevin Love, perennial All-Stars in their own right who sacrificed that top dog role to win championships on LeBron James-led teams.

Unlike Bosh, and unlike Love, however, LeVert has never been the undoubted top dog on an NBA team. In fact, LeVert has yet to crystallize himself as a star in this league — he has no All-Star appearances and has never averaged more than 19 points in a season.

The world got a glimpse of what LeVert can become in the Orlando bubble, where he averaged 25 points, seven assists and 1.5 steals through six seeding games. Durant, Irving and head coach Steve Nash have told him they want to see more of that on the floor this season.

“We’ve talked countless times just about me being myself, me being aggressive, picking my spots,” he said. “There will be a lot of opportunities for myself along with other guys to be aggressive with so much attention on Kevin and Ky. So, it’s just picking our spots, being aggressive and just trusting the work we’ve put in throughout the summer.”

Despite that mandate, LeVert is still preparing for the inevitable: being effective while Durant and Irving bend defenses to their will.

That means more opportunities off the ball that he’ll need to cash in on. More sacrifice. More buy-in. More deference.

“The work I’ve been putting in, I’ve kind of just been preparing myself for every situation,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of off the ball shooting, catch and shoot shots. And preparing myself to play on the ball as well.”

A hefty dose of sacrifice is in store in Brooklyn. Championships are built on the back of altruism. Players not named LeBron James and Anthony Davis sacrificed their pride to win a championship last season. The Lakers will face a similar challenge this season, welcoming two Sixth Man of the Year candidates, Dennis Schroder and reigning winner Montrezl Harrell, into the fold.

The Nets have one of the deepest rosters in all of the NBA, but depth, in this instance, can be a gift and a curse. Durant said he spent time thinking about how he and his teammates will play together, but there’s a huge difference between thinking and actually doing.

“It’s different when you get on the floor and you see guys’ tendencies, and how they play when they’re tired, or see how they play with different ball handlers on the floor and they’ve gotta stay in the corner,” he said. “So I think it’s a matter of us adjusting to each other and growing with each other on a day to day, but we have high IQ guys who know how to mesh well with anyone.”

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