WE WERE SO WARNED! Caris LeVert’s emergence should be no surprise

It’s only two games and there’s six months left in the regular season.

But sometimes, two games can tell you a lot. The sample size is small, but it sure feels different. There are levels to (Lin)sanity-esque reigns, where players appear ... on a hot streak, in over their heads, playing out of their minds before crash landing back on earth at the hands of Mario Chalmers.

Then again, sometimes you can tell when the start of something is the start of something.

And of course, this time, we were warned.

Caris LeVert’s teammates had been telling us for weeks this would happen. And yes, sometimes teammates are full of it. But after 27 points, tying his career-high, in Wednesday’s season opener at Detroit, then 28 points – along with six rebounds, five assists and the game-winner – versus the Knicks at Barclays on Friday, ya gotta believe.

“Heck of a job. Heck of a battle on both ends of the floor,” said Kenny Atkinson of … his possible rising star? “I’ll tell you what, I thought he made, especially at the end, made (Tim) Hardaway (Jr.) work for his shots. He was our leader tonight, and he said after the game ‘Coach I owe you one from the Detroit game.’ So, great game, but that was a heck of a finish at the end.”

Jared Dudley is in his 12th season. He’s played well over 800 career games, including playoffs. He called LeVert “unguardable” just last month, after watching LeVert in training camp.

Ed Davis said he was calling people telling them about how LeVert was going to have a good season.

DeMarre Carroll called this his breakout year.

This is not a game anymore, fam. We are here. And it wasn’t just the shot...

And by the way, Dudley did not back-off those training camp comments last night. In fact, he’s doing what he can to help the just-turned 24-year-old get there.

“We’ve been talking about Caris LeVert here for a while and what he’s been able to do in training camp and in preseason, now it’s being unfolded during the regular season,” Dudley said post-game Friday. “How explosive he is and I think now his next progression is, when (the defense) is doubling, to make good passes.

“I stayed with him after the other day watching film and just showing all the different outlets that he has when these teams are going to make him have to pass the ball at different times,” Dudley added.

“But he’s explosive. He has a herky-jerky game, kind of like (James) Harden when he can euro and side-step or he takes a long step, it’s hard for the bigs to time him. And he’s shooting the ball … if he can hit that three-point shot off pick-and rolls, he’s going to be really unstoppable to guard. It’s fun seeing him develop and it’s one of the reasons I’m here, to help him through that process.”

During the game, the progress was obvious ... to us.

And right, sure, yeah, this is NetsDaily.

So don’t take it from us, take it from those around the NBA. LeVert won over their hearts on Friday night also. (An interesting night to fall in love, but I digress.)

LeVert, of course, will continue to play it cool with whatever comes his way — that is who he is, but he did acknowledge that his confidence continues to grow.

“I’m really confident right now. My teammates and my coaches have a lot of confidence in me. I work on a lot of my game and I watch a lot of film,” he said.

And of the game-winner, he says it felt go to rid himself of Wednesday night’s collapse. (Spencer Dinwiddie was also thrilled that LeVert saved him from being labeled as the one who missed a wide open three with roughly 30 seconds remaining.)

“It felt good but at the same time I tried to wipe Detroit out of my mind, just move on from it. Kenny had a lot of confidence in me to go back to me tonight and I just wanted to come through,” LeVert said.

“I just wanted to get the shot that I wanted. I wanted to get the last shot and I wanted to get the shot that I wanted to get,” he added.

Again, it’s only two games. We are still 10+ days away from Halloween! Maybe LeVert is a star in the making and this is his natural progression from a promising first two seasons. Maybe there’s a reason he’s the player sought after when the Nets are approached in trade discussions.

Or maybe, this is fool’s gold, prompting a severe overreaction from fans and media alike.

Or maybe we should ask Victor Oladipo when the Nets head to Indiana on Saturday. He knows a thing or two about improvement …

• ‘We knew it was coming’: Have the Brooklyn Nets become Caris LeVert’s team? - Michael Scotto - The Athletic New York