Oh yeah, the summer league starts Friday

Tune into NBA TV or ESPN3 online at 8 p.m. and you might see the Nets future ... or you might have to wait to see them at the next press conference. Certainly, some of the 15 faces the Nets have gathered in Las Vegas will be in camp, but which ones is the issue.

As Brian Lewis reports, the Nets roster that will go up against the Hawks is unconventional. They’ll have their head coach on the sidelines, five rotational players and two starters on the floor in Las Vegas.

“[It is] obviously a little different from how other teams do it,’’ said Kenny Atkinson, who’s coaching the team for the second straight year. “But we want them to keep progressing. I want to keep progressing as a coach. I want to be in the trenches with them instead of sitting up in the stands socializing. I feel like it’s important.

“These are our guys we’re going forward with. It’s a young core, so I felt it was important for them to all be together. And credit to them for wanting to play. No one forced them. Normally you get fight, pushback from players and agents. They were all like, ‘We’re in. We’re playing,” which is great. It’s a great dress rehearsal.”

The Nets will have their starting power forward, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, last year’s two back-up point guards, Isaiah Whitehead and Spencer Dinwiddie, as well as 6’7” Caris LeVert, who started at small forward but can play the 1, 2 or 3, and 6’5” Archie Goodwin, a natural shooting guard who’s added some point guard skills while working out this summer. Those five have 11 years NBA experience, led by Goodwin’s four and Dinwiddie’s three.

They’ll also have a couple of bigs who weren’t on the roster last season but will bear watching: Prince Ibeh, the 6’11” shot blocker who played in Long Island, and Jake Wiley, a 6’7” hyperathletic power forward out of Eastern Washington. He has one of the two-way contracts, permitting him to move easily between the parent club and Long Island. And the other player with a partial guarantee, Jeremy Senglin, the NCAA’s top three-point shooter last season at Weber State, should get minutes as well

Neither of the team’s two youngest players, 19-year-old draft pick Jarrett Allen, out with a hip flexor, nor D’Angelo Russell, who’s working out in Brooklyn, will play. Expect a number of veterans to show up as cheerleaders. Allen traveled with the team to Vegas.

• Nets’ summer league approach more hands-on than other teams - Brian Lewis - New York Post
• Caris LeVert eager to play with Nets’ summer league team - Greg Logan - Newsday