Nets need so much work, they treat summer league like the real thing

LAS VEGAS — Most teams’ summer-league contingents areไ made up of rookies, hopefuls and long shots. But most teams aren’t the Nets — coming off the worst season in the NBA and in desperate need of positive vibes to 🦄fuel their rebuild.

After finishing an NBA-worst 20-62 — and Las Vegas oddsmakers making them the longest shot yet again — at some point the Nets need even modest victories to keep their culture trending the right way. That is why they’ll have their head coach on the sidelines, five regulars on the roster and two starters on th✅e floor in Las Vegas.

“[It is] obviously a little different from how other teams do it,’’ said Kenny Atkinson, opting to coach himself and ꦉnot delegate it to an assistant. “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. I🐠t’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 playeಞrs and agents. They were all like, ‘We’re in. We’re playing,” which is great. It’s a great dress rehearsal.”

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Caris LeVert were starters last season. Spencer Dinwiddie and Isaiah Whitehead were seventh and eighth in average minutes played, and Archie Goodwin, despite being just 22, is entering his fifth NBA season. But not one of them balked a🐼t putting in sweat equity in Las Vegas.

“No, they were all-in. It might be a little different thinking than other teams. Listen, we’ve got a long way to go,’’ Atkinson said. “Summer league, it’s a great environment. You can really improve your game here. There’s pressure, there’s a crowd, there’s media, guys play really hard. I’d rather have this than sitting in a gym in Brooklyn working out wit⛄h a coach. We get better this way, playing.”

Whitehead and Dinwiddie get practice running a team and playing off the ball. LeVert, who missed summer league last year𒁃 while rehabbing from surgery, will get to handle the ball and put all the work he has done on his jumper to the test.

“It’s very important to get some momentum going into next year and also work on some things I’ve been working on in the offseason, get it into play, get a good rhythm. So we’re all looking forward to it,’’ said LeVert, who hit 32.1 percent from 3 last season. “[I’ve worked on] every part of my game🌃, but mostly shooting, juꦇst trying to become a better shooter, catch-and-shoot, off the dribble, different things.”

Buoyed by an 11-13 finish af🐽ter the All-Star break, the Nets are hoping a solid summer-league performance with several of the same key players will carry over into the regular season.

“We think we can be a contender next year for sure,’’ LeVert said. “Last year, ♚we played really well after the All-Star break. We’re going to try to carry on where we left off going into this year.”

Of the young Nets, the only ones under 23 who aren’t playing sum൩mer league are offseason acquisition D’Angelo Russell, 21, and injured first-round pick Jarrett Allen, 19.

Russell has been posting on Instagram about his midnight workout sessions at HSS Training Center, even goading longtime friend LeVert to join him. Brooklyn is being cautious with Allen after he suffered a hip flexor doing a three-quarters-court sprint during a workout rou🙈ghly a week before the draft. But despite being ruled out of summer-league action, Allen is on the roster and made the trip.

“It’s a minor setback. I’m doing rehab with the people here. I’ꦬm starting to run again, get back into shape,’’ Allen said. “We’re struggling right now, so it’s just a sense of the only way is up. Everybody is having a positive mindset, everybody wants to get better.”