Jarrett Allen to play for summer league team

In an interview with Michael Scotto of The Athletic, Jarrett Allen says he plans on playing for the Nets summer league team next month in Las Vegas. For the 20-year-old, it will be his first taste of the big event, having missed it last June with a hip injury.

He had been uncertain about whether he would play in previous interviews. So far, Allen is the third player to commit to the July 6-17 league, which for the first time will include all 30 NBA teams. Caris LeVert had said he plans to play and the Nets Argentine stash, Juan Pablo Vaulet, told an Argentine interviewer that he too expects to play. The Nets can carry 15 players on their summer league roster.

Allen gave Scotto a peek at what to expect at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“I’ve been working on shooting, being more comfortable at the top of the key, and just trying to be able to facilitate more,” Allen said of his workout routine at HSS Training Center. He has been in the Nets gym five days a week.

Allen told Scotto that getting snubbed in the All-Rookie team voting has motivated him.

“It definitely is,” said Allen, who did receive 18 second-team votes from media members. “I mean, with the rookie class that I was a part of, anybody could’ve been on that list. So, that’s why you win some, and you lose some. You can’t really take it too hard. But it definitely is fuel for me to work all summer to try to be better than everybody next year.”

Scotto interviewed Allen at the Nets’ second annual Youth Tournament at Brooklyn Bridge Park where he told campers to make their dreams their reality.

“For me, when I was young, it’s like, ‘Man, there’s no way I can be as good as like when Dwight (Howard) was in his prime. Man, how am I going to be as good as Dwight?’” Allen told The Athletic. “But now, I’m playing in the NBA. I kept working. I didn’t let that distract me from the path I wanted. Now I’m playing against him.”

Meanwhile, Vaulet, the 6’7” swingman taken in the 2015 Draft’s second round, told Julian Mozo, an Argentine sports writer, that the Nets want to take a look at him, measure his progress since they had him up in Brooklyn a year and a half ago.

“They told me they want to see me, as happened last year when I came to some private workouts. My goal is to measure myself with players there and learn from the experience,” Vaulet told Mozo.

Nothing official from the Nets.

• Nets’ Jarrett Allen motivated by All-Rookie snub, aspires to become top-five center - Michael Scotto - The Athletic New York