The Brooklyn Nets are in a holding pattern. With 10 players in health and safety protocols, plus with Joe Harris and Nic Claxton nursing injuries, the team has been ravaged lately. This coming Saturday is Christmas, so many fans are wondering which stars will be in the lineup for that Nets showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers. Will we get Kevin Durant vs. LeBron James or have to settle for Patty Mills versus Dwight Howard? Will James Harden be back? When will Kyrie Irving make his anticipated return?

You know what NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants to see, for the ratings. But the players who don't have COVID-19 may be a bit banged up as well. LeBron James had this scary fall Tuesday, though he seems OK:

The Nets are in first place with a 21-9 record. The Lakers are 16-16. But nobody really cares about their respective records right now; they care about seeing KD versus LBJ for the first time in three seasons in a few days.

As mentioned, the Nets have 10 players in health and safety protocols, and their last three games have been postponed as the Omicron variant spreads around the NBA. The league is considering what to do:

Adam Silver recently addressed the media on the situation, via SI's Chris Mannix:

“Frankly, we are having trouble coming up with what the logic would be behind pausing right now,” Silver said. “As we look through these cases literally ripping through the country, let alone the rest of the world, I think we're finding ourselves where we sort of knew we were going to get to over the past several months, and that is this virus will not be eradicated, and we're going to have to learn to live with it.”

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It sounds like the NBA is considering this disease as something that is here to stay. And rather than wait until it's gone, they may see it as more endemic and something to play through.

Some of the vague language communicated from the league recently has folks wondering if the NBA might even make the counterintuitive decision to ease restrictions as COVID cases surge, implementing changes so players with COVID could play anyway, as long as they were asymptomatic:

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So with their roster absolutely crushed by COVID-19, including names like Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and LaMarcus Aldridge, having a few games postponed here offers a slight reprieve to Steve Nash's group. And it's possible, they got some big-market advantage here.

A recent post from blogger Net Income, writing for NetsDaily speculated the following:

“The postponement may very well be a strategic move by the NBA. By postponing the Blazers game, the NBA has reduced chances of new infections and increased chances of more Nets, including their stars, being ready for the lucrative Christmas Day schedule, whenever they play.”

With the postponements, something coach Steve Nash said last week seems more relevant here.

“The question is we’re above the threshold [for the number of players you need to have active in order to play an NBA game],” said Nash, “so to speak, which is positive. At the same time we’re barely above the threshold, so what toll does that take on our players? Is it better to be over the threshold and to not be playing until you have a healthy roster? Or is it better to have enough to play but to be shorthanded and the burden and the toll that takes on these guys and knowing that you’re gonna have guys coming back who haven’t been able to practice or play basketball? So it is definitely tricky to navigate.”

Hearing Nash weigh the pros and cons of having enough players available makes you think the Nets might be pretty relieved that they haven't had to play games against the Washington Wizards, Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers. They've been extremely mindful and concerned about the minute totals their stars have tallied. They probably don't love the idea of overburdening their available players with big minutes more than they have either. Now they get a few days to rest and hope players recover and test negative so they can return as soon as possible.

Having made the controversial decision to bring back Kyrie Irving for road games, the Nets will now wait for their players to test out of protocols. GM Sean Marks said how quickly the players might return will depend on things like vaccination status, whether they were symptomatic or not, CT levels in their tests, and other factors.

For now, we wonder if we're getting KD versus LeBron or Patty Mills versus Dwight Howard on Christmas … or if the game might be postponed entirely. There may already be too many ad dollars funneled into the possible showdown for that.