Despite the misery of sitting in the league’s cellar for the better part of two years, Atkinson and current Nets GM Sean Marks both believe that better days are ahead for a franchise that reached the playoffs in each of its first three campaigns in our fair borough before this precipitous fall.

“Obviously the losses weren’t easy, but we understood what we were getting into,” Atkinson said of his rookie campaign. “I know in the long run that the adversity we had to face — it’s almost like you deserve to face that, this is what it is — I think it made me a better coach.

“It made our players better players just to go through that struggle,” he added. “So I liked the process, and looking back on it, having to fight through some tough times. I think that will make us better in the long run.”

Buoyed by the deft moves of Marks this past summer, which included the acquisitions of budding star D’Angelo Russell, sharp-shooter Allen Crabbe and veteran leader DeMarre Carroll, three likely starters in the team’s Opening Night lineup, the Nets are eager to kick off a new era Wednesday night in Indiana, where they will begin the 2017-18 campaign against the Pacers.

An era marked by the team’s progress on the court, rather than its ongoing quest to climb out of the cavernous hole created by King’s ill-fated decision to swap the organization’s future for a pair of over-the-hill future Hall of Famers.

“The objective for us is to be in the playoffs. When that comes, we’ll see,” Marks said way back in April, months before sending all-time Net Brook Lopez to the Los Angeles Lakers for Russell and veteran center Timofey Mozgov in the deal that is most likely to define his tenure at the helm of the organization.

“You don’t want to go and sign free agents and then the next thing you know your payroll is capped out and you’re a 25-win team,” Marks added. “We’re going to have to build this strategically. Have patience with it.”

That patient approach, which has been fully backed by billionaire Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who is reportedly in the process of fielding offers for the team he originally purchased from Bruce Ratner back in 2010, must show signs that it is paying off this season.

Marks got Russell, Crabbe and Carroll, three players he feels will flourish under Atkinson’s “3-and-D” style, to put alongside holdovers like point guard Jeremy Lin, Rondae-Hollis Jefferson, Caris LeVert and Sean Kilpatrick.

The Nets intend to run the floor with a vengeance, shoot without a conscience and defend as if their lives depend upon it, something they were unable to accomplish last season after finishing dead last in the league in team defense.

“We wanted to have a more active defense and we didn’t force turnovers last year,” Atkinson admitted.

“I think our change of personnel can help, obviously. D’Angelo gets a lot of deflections and steals, DeMarre — that’s always been his thing defensively — and I think it fuels the whole team. Those guys can start to get that energy going.”

As for Crabbe, who might come off the bench to begin the season despite making a team-high $18.5 million, Marks is hoping the player he coveted enough to sign to a $75 million offer sheet the summer before last can live up to his reigning status as one of the best 3-point shooters in the sport.

As well as providing a bit of help on the defensive end.

“We sat with Allen [and said]: ‘Look, we think we can help your game. We think we can take it to another level. Let’s not just be a shooter.’” Marks said.

“And he’s excited about that. He’s got a chip on his shoulder, and he wants to take his game to another level, all-around facets. It’s not just shooting. It’s defense. It’s everything.”

The Nets showed flashes of what they can be during a blistering 3-0 start to the preseason, holding each opponent below 100 points while lighting up the scoreboard with dead-eye shooting.

They capped the exhibition campaign with a brutal 133-114 loss to Philadelphia last Wednesday, a defeat marked by the Nets’ deficiency at the center position, where an aging Mozgov, spindly rookie Jarrett Allen and newly added veteran Tyler Zeller will try to fill the void left by Lopez, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder.

But to Lin, who will likely share point-guard duties with Russell until Atkinson gets a feel for which one should assume the lead role, the preseason was simply prologue to what the Nets hope will be a turnaround season.

One that results in them breaking the 30-win barrier for the first time since the 2014-15 season, and yes, potentially challenging for a postseason berth.

“Let’s say, for example, we were 0-3 [in the preseason] but we were still playing the same way,” Lin said after the Nets spanked the East River rival Knicks, 117-83, on Oct. 8.

“I think my takeaways would be pretty much the same. It’s just I think we are playing the right way. I felt we had a great defensive game, we had a ton of assists probably and we moved the ball. If we could draw it up, that’s how it would be, gritty defense leading to unselfish offense.”

Unfortunately, the Pacers will have something to say about how the Nets draw up their game plan on opening night, when the wins and losses really count for something.

But to their credit, Marks and Atkinson have gone a long way toward leaving that infamous 2013 deal in the rear-view mirror for a franchise that is still in the process of building a better future here in Downtown Brooklyn.

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