In his time with the Brooklyn Nets, Michigan product Caris LeVert cemented himself as a player who will be playing in the league for a very long time. When the Nets drafted him with the 16th pick of the 2016 NBA Draft, it took a sacrifice in the form of Thaddeus Young. Nets GM Sean Marks took a risk when making that trade with the Indiana Pacers to acquire LeVert, but it proved to be a solid move.
Ironically, it was indeed the Pacers again who traded for LeVert in January. The former Nets guard was a part of a four-team blockbuster deal that shipped James Harden to Brooklyn. On JJ Redick’s, The Old Man & Three podcast, the 26-year-old came on as a guest to talk about his time in Brooklyn:
“My first year the vets on the team were Trevor Booker, Randy Foye, Jeremy Lin … Brook Lopez. Brook was our go to guy, but he was in the post. We were feeding him in the post. We won like 22 games that year — The next year traded Brook for D’Angelo (Russell) and we were still terrible.”
At this point, the Nets were a laughing stock in the league. Nobody took them seriously except for their fans, and the players felt that as well.
“Right after that year, we kind of felt it. We were all together during that offseason. Myself, we drafted Jarrett Allen, D’Angelo, Spencer (Dinwiddie) … Joe Harris. We had a nice core and we kind of felt that we were getting better everyday. And I remember going into training camp like we might have a chance to be alright this year. And sure enough that was when D’Angelo made that huge push that he made to be an All-Star. We made the playoffs and we were like a sixth seed that year too so that was a crazy year for us.”
The ways things turned around for the Nets will never be forgotten. For LeVert, he’s just happy that he was able to soak it all in and enjoy his time there instead having mixed feelings about getting traded:
“I don’t have any mixed feelings at all. I had a great time there. I’m very grateful for all the people that I met there. The relationships that I built. The stuff that I learned more than anything else. This past year and half was tough for me, just changing roles and things like that. But I learned so much in that time that I could never have any sour emotions. You know how it is when you’re in the NBA, you know what you sign up for and you know what’s capable of happening. So I kind of knew in my head that when they traded D’Angelo, I knew anything at that point was possible — I loved Brooklyn though.”
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