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The Brooklyn Nets have been at the center of some of the league's biggest stories over the last few days.
First, James Harden headlined a wave of positive COVID tests within the team. Then the fact the Nets were missing so many key players to illness and injury led them to change their stance on Kyrie Irving, who's now been permitted to be a part-time player for (the vast majority of) games and practices outside New York City. On Saturday, we learned both Kevin Durant and Irving have also entered health and safety protocols.
How will the Nets, the league's latest team to be decimated by COVID, even field a squad?
Brooklyn has turned to free agency to add Shaq Harrison, Langston Galloway and James Ennis to help in the meantime. If you're keeping track at home, the absurdity of the current injury report is easier to illustrate by listing the players who are not out. That's a first for me.
So right now, it’s Patty Mills, Shaquille Harrison, Cam Thomas, Langston Galloway, Kessler Edwards, James Ennis, Blake Griffin and Day’Ron Sharpe — eight guys.
David Duke Jr. remains probable and Nic Claxton remains questionable.
— Chris Milholen (@ChrisMilholen) December 18, 2021
On the pending slate is a Saturday and Sunday back-to-back at Barclays Center against the Orlando Magic and Denver Nuggets. The Nets will likely roll out the same largely anonymous roster next week. This means we will not get to watch Durant vs. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas. It means we will have to continue waiting before we see Irving's road-only return.
If somehow Irving did not actually test positive but tested inconclusive, the absolute earliest he might be able to return to the court could be that Lakers game on Christmas or the LA Clippers game on New Year's Day. More likely now is that Irving makes his season debut on January 5th against the Indiana pacers or even on January 12 against the Chicago Bulls.
But here's the other element.
The Nets probably don't care much about the outcome of any of these upcoming games now. Sure, they'd probably deny that and will do all they can to win a few more contests short-handed. Remember, they've already defeated the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers with a skeleton crew.
But with Irving back, Brooklyn's immediate concern will shift to simply hoping everyone recovers from the virus. Its long-term regular-season goals will shift towards simply getting everyone to the playoffs in one piece.
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We watched the 2020-2021 version of this team almost formulaically scratch healthy veterans and sit key stars in winnable games to avoid passing surpassing undisclosed minutes restrictions. With Irving in the fold, regular-season winning streaks or losing streaks won't matter to the Nets much at all. They know that if this team can somehow be healthy for the playoffs, they can beat anyone. Yes, that includes a Golden State Warriors team with Klay Thompson set to return.
Of course, Brooklyn's core players being healthy and on the floor is a massive if. It was their main goal a season ago and just never happened. It was their goal heading into training camp this season, and we still probably won't see it before 2022.
But if the Nets were worried about the one-seed or home-court advantage, that pressure has mostly evaporated with the Irving bombshell. Andre Iguodala, who learned first hand just how good Irving is when the seven-time All-Star slayed Iguodala's Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, even made the (funny cause it's true) joke about the Nets not even wanting home court advantage now.
"The second or third best record, and then they can play on the road and they're going to win every time he play. The dude is that good, but y'all don't want to say that."
— Nick Friedell (@NickFriedell) December 18, 2021
More road games mean more games where Irving is eligible to play. That certainly changes the calculus for the playoffs a bit. The Nets host the Milwaukee Bucks on March 31st. Imagine if there were seeding implications and both teams somehow preferred to lose that one because they didn't want home-court advantage as it pertains to Kyrie's availability?
For now, the Nets will let fans debate the morality and merits of allowing Irving back into the fold as this pandemic rages on, leaving both vaccinated and unvaccinated players out of the lineup.
But if Brooklyn does eventually get healthy, a team that is already 11-3 on the road and in first place in the East at 21-8 overall might provide “scary times” for opponents. And the phrase scary times has a bit more meaning these days, too.
As fans, we try to find some distraction from the pandemic that has rocked our world in sports. Now we can't help but focus on how it's rocking sports along with the rest of us.
