Jeremy Lin Keeps Focus, Sees Brooklyn Nets Turning Corner

Jeremy Lin thinks the Brooklyn Nets are turning the corner.

After winning just 20 games last season, the Nets are just one win away from equaling 20 percent of that win total this preseason alone.

And after Monday night’s 34-point blowout win over their cross-borough rival, the New York Knicks, Lin sees the progress.

“I feel like we’re playing the right way,” Lin told Newsday. “Today, we had a great defensive game. We had a ton of assists [29] and we moved the ball. If we could draw it up, that’s how it would be, gritty defense leading to unselfish offense.”

Lin said he is equally intrigued by the Nets’ combination of length, speed, and depth.

“We’re seeing them play at a super-high intensity,” he said of his teammates. “I think that’s helping our overall team.”

Over the preseason, Brooklyn’s defensive intensity is holding opponents to just 37.9 percent shooting from the field, and 26.5 percent from three-point range. The Nets’ aggressiveness on the glass has also been apparent, with the team out-rebounding opponents 54.0-43.3 per game.

All this comes on top of the Nets shooting a more than respectable 46.2 percent from the field and 42.1 from three-point range.

“In my mind, it’s like, ‘OK, wow. We have a chance to be a great team,'” Lin said. “But the season is another level. I’m just wary to draw too much from preseason. We’re all 0-0. But I definitely see us heading in the right direction, and that’s extremely encouraging to me.”

The Nets close the preseason against the Philadelphia 76ers Wednesday night at Nassau Coliseum, before opening the regular season on October 18 at Indiana.

Between now and then, Lin hopes to keep the Nets focused and centered on what he thinks they could be.

Meanwhile, the veteran point guard is still working to put all the recent controversy over his latest hairstyle firmly in his rear-view mirror.

Former NBA star Kenyon Martin publicly chastised Lin over his dreadlock style, but he has since apologized.

“We had a great conversation,” Lin told ESPN. “I think things were blown out of proportion, taken a little out of context as well.”

[Featured Image by Abbie Parr/Getty Images]