Long Island Nets schedule released ... with some twists

The Long Island Nets announced their 2022-23 season Thursday with tip-off scheduled for November 4 vs. the College Park Skyhawks, the Hawks affiliate, in Georgia. The G League Nets will then host the Maine Celtics in the team’s home opener on November 13 at Nassau Coliseum.

The NBA G League will continue its new structure for the 2022-23 season. The 50-game schedule will be broken into two parts – an 18-game Showcase Cup and a 32-game regular season. The season will tip off with the 18-game Showcase Cup that features all 30 teams and will culminate at the NBA G League Winter Showcase with the Showcase Cup Championship Game. NBA G League team records will then reset and restart December 27, for the regular season schedule.

Long Island will play 24 home games at Nassau Coliseum this year, including three contests in the morning or afternoon and three games that will be played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. The LI Nets’ two longest homestands of the season will span four games each at the Coliseum, with the first beginning on January 9, versus Windy City and concluding a week later versus Grand Rapids and the second starting January 30, against Wisconsin and ending on February 8 vs. Sioux Falls.

The schedule also includes 24 road contests and two games that Long Island will play as a part of the annual NBA G League Winter Showcase in December. The team’s two longest road trips will span five games each, with the first beginning on November 18, at Greensboro, and ending November. 26, at Westchester and the second from March 17, at Cleveland through Saturday, March 25, at Rio Grande Valley.

Long Island will play seven back-to-back sets throughout the season.

There are a couple of innovations across the league this season. For the first time, G League’s Team Ignite, the Las Vegas-based team that includes several top 2023 NBA Draft prospects, and the Mexico City Capitanes will play a full 50-game schedule. The two teams are unaffiliated with NBA clubs. Of the NBA’s 30 teams, only the Suns and Nuggets don’t currently have G League affiliates.

The G League is also instituting the so-called Elam Ending for overtime games. As Tim Bontemps of ESPN explained;

The G League will also employ the Elam Ending format during its annual Las Vegas showcase in December, when all 30 teams participate. The fourth quarter of each game will be played to a final target score of 25 points added to the leading team’s score after three quarters. For example, if the score of a game after three quarters is 90-85, the final target score would be 115 points, meaning the first team to reach it wins the game.

This follows the NBA’s adoption of Elam for its All-Star Game.

In terms of roster-building, Long Island will hold two local tryouts on September 17 at LIU Post in Old Westbury, N.Y. Then, just before the NBA’s Opening Night on October 19, Exhibit 10 players cut by Brooklyn will have their G League rights transferred to Long Island. The Nets have not announced any Exhibit 10 signings yet.

The G League Draft will take place on October 22 with training camp opening a few days later. As of Friday, only one player, undrafted point guard Alondes Williams, is under contract with Long Island as a Nets two-way player.

J.R. Holden, who’s been the Nets director of player personnel, will take over as Long Island’s GM (and the Nets director of scouting operations) this season, per reports. Emilio Carchia of Sportando reported Friday that Ronnie Burrell, a former assistant Long Island coach and player development coach with the Bulls, is replacing Adam Caporn who guided the Nets to the playoffs last season. He is now an assistant coach with Brooklyn. Burrell, a New Jersey native, also updated his LinkedIn profile recently to include his new job.

All of Long Island’s home games will be featured regionally on WRHU Radio Hofstra University 88.7 FM, and a full broadcast schedule will be released by the NBA G League at a later date.

Tickets for all regular season home games at Nassau Coliseum are on sale now at longislandnets.com and Ticketmaster.com. To learn more about ticket membership options or group experience packages, contact info@longislandnets.com or call 934.948.2546.

The full Long Island Nets 2022-23 schedule can be found at longislandnets.com.