As Kevin Durant is still out for at least a week or two, the Brooklyn Nets have fortified their roster by signing forward Alize Johnson to a 10-day contract.
Johnson was the 50th overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers. He spent his first two years in the league with the team before being waived in December last year. Earlier this season, he inked a deal with Raptors 905–the Toronto Raptors' G League affiliate.
Johnson, 24, averaged 16.6 points and 13.3 rebounds in the G-League Bubble for Toronto's affiliate. Johnson spent the previous two seasons with the Pacers.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 22, 2021
The signing seems to be a move to temporarily fill in the vacancy left by Durant as he continues to recover from a hamstring strain. While the Nets seem to be doing just fine (they've won eight of their last 10 games), they're hoping that Johnson would give them that extra lift.
Nets fans have been understandably concerned about Kevin Durant's health. Some even have a hunch that Durant re-injured his Achilles once again. But in a recent interview with Dr. Laith Jazrawi, chief of the Division of Sports Medicine at NYU Langone Health, he said it's normal for elite athletes like Durant to take their time, especially with a hamstring injury.
“And if you go back too early, there’s a high incidence of reinjuring it, so it becomes a vicious cycle. Oftentimes you try to get back, you get what Durant has, he gets back, he reinjures it, back-and-forth, or he doesn’t feel comfortable and then it ends up going to be three, six months all of a sudden. It’s not atypical. Every time I hear about a hamstring injury that’s taking a long time, I [think] that makes sense,” Jarawi said, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.
Given this reality, the Nets faithful should just sit back and relax while Durant fully recovers. The fact that Brooklyn remains active in terms of tweaking their roster is already a good hallmark of a winning franchise.
