The Nets’ Difficult Future: Playoffs or Title Contenders?

There is a query that can quickly be requested by each competing workforce that searches all through the league and gauges the size of the competitors: “The place’s Brooklyn?”

It is bizarre to say {that a} workforce that features Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons is sneaky beneath the radar, however right here we’re. You’ll be able to take every workforce’s finest case situation and few, if any, Nets finest case situations. There may be a lot right here to admire, respect and even concern – if the whole lot falls into place, in fact.

Nets stroll on shaky floor, however on the identical time their roof is above the clouds. There’s actually no center floor with this workforce as to the place he’s and the way far he can go. It’s a half empty and half full place and the guess could take cost.

Durant is again within the lineup on Thursday in opposition to Miami and if he can recapture the extent he confirmed earlier than the sprained MCL when he was taking part in at an MVP-like tempo… And the If Irving truly will get the go-ahead to play house video games… And the If Simmons can shortly regain full deal with getting again to work… the Nets shall be simply pretty much as good if not higher than everybody else. They may attend the title trifecta: Power, Confirmed Winners and Depth.

It would not matter that Brooklyn’s place within the East, proper now, is swarmed and nearer to the Play-In Championship than the shed. None of that can matter a lot within the playoffs except you set lots of fairness into your native stadium benefit.

The actual image will begin to take form too quickly, and it may well’t get right here quick sufficient for the Grids, who’re battling the forces of waning time – we’re within the prolonged area of the common season – and unproven chemistry.

“Our guys shall be again and we’ll maintain the enterprise,” mentioned Nets reserve guard Bruce Brown. “We have not performed with one another but. We simply need to play collectively.”

There may be an elephant theme within the room. The need – or lack of ability – to play matches at house will not matter a lot to the Nets till the playoffs start; Then they are going to want some readability about Irving. They’ll purchase themselves a while, however as soon as they see somebody in a playoff collection, the caliber of the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks — or the Warmth, and even the Philadelphia 76ers — shrinks the margin for error. Even for a workforce with Durant.

The Nets are partaking New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams to take the subsequent step in loosening the town’s inner mandate for non-vaccinators, which stays baffling (visiting gamers are nice) and complicated for most individuals, no matter their place on the problem. Proper now, there is a fairly good likelihood that Adams will rule in favor of the Nets, pushing him in that course quickly by way of science or maybe civic stress. However once more, who is aware of?

“I am glad issues are beginning to kind of quiet down and there may be gentle on the finish of the tunnel right here,” Irving mentioned. “Hopefully I can come again to that house ground and play at Barclays and now we will lastly have that dialog you’ve got been dying for about turning the web page and shifting on past.

“However like I mentioned, I am not the one one. I really feel for everybody whether or not they’ve been in my boat or an identical boat or handled some form of trauma from this. I simply want everybody all one of the best, all the time. I am on report saying it isn’t about me, that I do not I wish to really feel prefer it’s all about me.”

This, we all know: Kyrie is an authorized shooter and champion. His presence modifications the way in which mattress nets are defended. He averaged 25.7 factors per recreation in February regardless of solely taking part in on the street. All of a sudden, the Nets introduced in a pair of salvage artists to provide them an edge in tight fourth-quarter conditions, and you will find they will see much less of them as they journey deeper into the playoffs.

There is no such thing as a indication once we will see Simmons. His situation is unclear after being away from the NBA fitness center for about eight months coping with a decrease again harm (he hasn’t returned to full contact follow). Plus, there is not any normal sense of the place he is at mentally, particularly as he has bravely admitted about his psychological well being struggles, which started lengthy earlier than the Sixers’ season ended final yr.

“He appears to be a contented child and is trying ahead to taking part in,” Andre Drummond, a Nets participant famous.

The great thing about Simmons’ commerce wasn’t simply that the Nets acquired a younger participant whose superior protection solves the workforce’s most evident weak point. The Nets have additionally pulled out a pair of helpful backup gamers within the course of.

Seth Curry is taking pictures 41.1 % on 3-shots this season (40 % with Brooklyn), which is both insurance coverage in case Joe Harris catches fireplace (as he did in final yr’s playoffs) or an additional layer of taking pictures (in Harris’ case) he comes again from harm and hits these open views). This provides the Nets three traitors of the 3-point strip: Curry, Harris, and Patti Mills.

Additionally, Drummond was thrown into the commerce – Nets GM Sean Marks cleverly weakened the Sixers by stealing their bench – and Drummond may find yourself with essentially the most minutes within the heart whether or not or not he began at LaMarcus Aldridge. Drummond remains to be an expensive extrovert who as soon as once more fills the void.

Basically, Durant has the supporting forged to provide himself an opportunity at a 3rd starring. Sadly for him, it was reduce brief by Harden’s short-lived interval. Everybody is aware of Durant, Harden and Irving solely performed 16 video games collectively. Thankfully for Durant, he could have an improve with Irving and Simmons — with all of the strings listed above hooked up, even when he hasn’t performed the brand new “Massive Three” in Brooklyn but.

Keep in mind that even with out Irving and crippling Harden, the Nets would have eradicated the Bucks in 2023 had Durant’s foot been past the three-point line for his shot in Recreation 7 of that collection. Durant is that proficient, able to carrying a membership if some issues go incorrect together with his teammates.

“He’ll come again and have an effect on the match in each means he can,” Drummond mentioned. “He is each an offensive and defensive risk. I feel with our chemistry collectively on the bottom, it’ll make it very troublesome for groups to select their poison, with whom they wish to shield… We’ve lots of threats.”

The Nets have been 27-15 when Durant was injured and left the squad on January 16, going 5-16 with out him. This provides you the extent of its influence on profitable and dropping.

It is also for that reason that the Nets aren’t in an entire panic mode although they’re sitting Play-In and teetering on the sting. The belief is that after Durant returns, the state of affairs will stabilize. As soon as Simmons and Irving be a part of him, the nets will go up.

The Brooklyn have a look at finest appears fluid and fragile. Welcome to the world of Nets since Durant arrived as a free agent in July 2019 and raised the bar for creativeness. 31 months later, Brooklyn remains to be trying to find the promised outcomes. Thirty-one months later, Brooklyn nonetheless would not know the place it’s.