Trying to fill the hole at the center of the Nets offense

Brook Lopez and his 20 point per game scoring average, his 134 three pointers, have gone to Los Angeles.

The Nets know they have to find a way to replace all that offense. And not only is he gone, the scoring burden is almost assuredly shifting from the front court to the back court.

As Kenny Atkinson told Greg Logan, the roster is not set yet. So they still have a way to go.

“We’re still in the process of going through free agency,” Atkinson said. “There could be other things happening so we’ve got to wait before we can define any roles.”

Still, there are aspects of the roster that are set and the Nets can start thinking about possibilities ... like pairing D’Angelo Russell and Caris LeVert at the wings.

“Yeah, no doubt about it. You could see them playing together a lot,” Atkinson admitted. “As far as who’s starting and who’s coming off the bench, I haven’t even thought about that yet, but I think they’ll play a ton together.”

The presumed point guard thinks it will be offense by committee.

“If you spread it out and play quick, I think we’ll see a lot of easy shots, dunks, open threes, things like that,” Lin said. “We’re going to have D’Angelo and Caris [LeVert] who are, hopefully, going to take big steps in their games. Hopefully, I can stay healthy and play more minutes.

“When you look at the end-of-the-season points per game, I don’t envision a huge dropoff, although we’re definitely going to miss Brook’s innate scoring ability.”

Despite Lopez’s loss, it should be noted that the Nets offense was without Lin for more than 40 games and LeVert didn't join the club until early December. Moreover, Russell will be replacing Randy Foye who did start 40 games at shooting guard. That should be an upgrade.

• Nets figuring out how to replace Brook Lopez’s scoring ability - Greg Logan - Newsday