Its time for Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. to be the leaders the Nets need

INDIANAPOLIS — Right now, every time the young Nets hit adversity, they go awry like a rudderless ship. That means their stars are going to have to do a better job steering them. That means Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr. “[We’ve] just got to be mentally tougher, understand what’s going on in the game, understand what we’re trying to accomplish, what we can take advantage of, stuff like that,” Randle admitted. “But we just have to have better recognition in-game of what’s going on and just be better from there.But we get adversity right now as a group, and it just deflates us as a team.

So I have to find a way to keep the group together, and get us out of those ruts when we’re facing those types of situations.” As the only winless team in the East coming into Sunday’s tilt at Indiana, the Nets have faced those types of situations every game.The result has been slumped shoulders, bad body language and the team coming unraveled. Granted, they played well at Cleveland and Boston.

But more often than not, they haven’t handled adversity well. And while Randle and Porter are a 1-2 scoring punch, neither is a defender.But for the Nets to compete, they’ll have to be leaders.

On a team this green, it’s not enough that they play well.They have to help their young teammates play well — or at least play together. “It’s easier said than done,” Porter said after Friday’s loss to Detroit.

“In the NBA when you lose five straight, it can be tough. “But we’ve got to continue to watch film, and do our best to stay connected as a group, do our best to stay positive, to come out next game and do better than we did [the last] game.We took a step forward [in] the Boston game, a couple steps backwards [against Detroit].

We’ve just got to watch it and go from there.” The Nets have glaring personnel issues that may limit their defensive ceiling, but they’ve underachieved offensively due to a lack of chemistry and cohesion....