Dain Dainja and Ben Humrichous give us two reasons to check in on Long Island tonight.
The Nets open their G League season at Greensboro at 6 p.m. Central, with the game listed on NBA.com and the NBA App. Dainja is coming off a productive year in Sioux Falls. Humrichous is trying to establish himself in the Nets organization after a summer with Brooklyn. Two former Illini, two different games to watch.
Both appear on Long Island’s current roster. The camp roster identifies Dainja as a returning player acquired by trade and Humrichous as an affiliate player. Neither is marked as having a two-way contract, which lets a player split time between the NBA and G League. For now, Long Island is the team to follow, with opening-night availability and minutes still to be determined.
Dainja has already done some work
If your last regular look at Dain was in an Illinois uniform, there’s quite a bit to catch up on.
He went from Baylor to Illinois, then finished college at Memphis. In his season there, he averaged 14.6 points and 7.4 rebounds, shot 61.5 percent from the field and earned first-team All-American Athletic Conference honors. That was followed by a full G League season with the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
The Skyforce’s regular-season recap gives us a useful starting point: 14.3 points and six rebounds a game, 63.3 percent shooting and eight double-doubles in 36 games. Those are regular-season numbers. You may also see a 50-game line that includes the other portion of the G League schedule, so the two sets of averages aren’t necessarily disagreeing with each other.
His biggest scoring night came February 1 against the Texas Legends. Dainja had 35 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in a 125–109 win. Eight of those rebounds were on the offensive end. That is a lot of extra possessions to give your team.
The official G League highlight reel from that game is a good catch-up watch. It’s last season’s footage, with Dain in a Sioux Falls jersey, but it puts some pictures with the production before we start following him in a new uniform.
Long Island acquired his returning-player rights from Sioux Falls in September. That’s a G League roster transaction, not an NBA call-up. He also spent the summer with Brooklyn, averaging 6.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in five Summer League games.
The scoring is established enough to make this interesting. The next thing I want to watch is what happens on the other end.
In Connor Long’s NetsDaily media-day reporting, Dainja talked about disrupting offenses, blocking shots, helping the guards in ball-screen coverage and rebounding. Those were his own priorities. He also said the coaches were familiar with his game and where he likes to get the ball.
That gives us something concrete to look for beyond the points column. How does he handle a guard coming off a screen? Can he finish the defensive possession with a rebound? Those are the possessions I’ll be paying attention to.
Humrichous brings a different game
Ben’s route to this point started at Huntington, an NAIA program, before Evansville and Illinois. That is quite a climb through college basketball before getting a look with an NBA organization.
He played four games for Brooklyn in Las Vegas this summer, averaging 4.8 points and 3.8 rebounds while making 35.3 percent of his threes. It was a small sample, but it gave him some professional possessions before camp.
The shooting is the obvious place to start. In that same NetsDaily report, Humrichous described his Illinois role as making threes and playing defense alongside teammates who did much of the playmaking. That’s a much more useful description than asking him to become somebody completely different because the uniform changed.
For Ben, I’ll be watching the quality of the looks as much as the makes. Is he getting clean catch-and-shoot chances? Can he keep the ball moving when the shot isn’t there? And can he defend well enough to stay involved when a couple of threes don’t fall?
A quick guide to the schedule
Long Island begins with three games on the road before its November 13 home opener against College Park. Shawn Swords is the new head coach.
The G League schedule also needs a little explanation if you’re joining us for this one. First comes a 14-game Tip-Off Tournament. Then the standings reset for a 36-game regular season. That’s why a full-year statistical line can cover more games than a regular-season recap.
Tonight is the first chance to start learning how this Long Island group fits together. Dainja’s inside scoring and rebounding are familiar parts of his game. Humrichous gives us a different kind of watch on the perimeter. I’m glad we have a reason to follow both.
This Day in Illini History
November 6, 2023: Illinois opened the season with an 80–52 win over Eastern Illinois at State Farm Center, and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn made himself pretty easy to notice.
The freshman scored 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting in his college debut, adding three rebounds and three assists. Illinois needed that spark. The Panthers had led by five before a 30–6 Illini run spanning the two halves changed the game.
Dra scored six straight Illinois points during a first-half run, then supplied the first seven points of another 10–0 burst after halftime. Eighteen points is a nice debut. Putting them in the middle of the runs that opened up the game made it better.
Dainja had eight points, six rebounds and a block that night. Amani Hansberry introduced himself with seven points and a team-high eight boards. The Illinois bench supplied 47 points, which tells you how much of the work came from beyond the starting five.
Three years later, we’ll be watching for Dain in Long Island colors.
Let’s go, Illini!!