The Brooklyn Nets are starting to look whole again after both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving cleared COVID-19 protocols on Tuesday. While KD will likely return to action pretty quickly, Kyrie won't play for a couple of weeks as he continues to ramp up his conditioning and get into game shape.
Nonetheless, Durant is excited to have his good friend back in the mix amid the Nets' issues with the virus, even if it's only in road games. Via Boardroom:
Article Continues Below“With us getting ravaged by COVID, and us down so many bodies, it felt like the perfect time to add a fresh body back into the equation,” Durant said of Kyrie’s return. “Adding Kyrie to the equation just makes us so much better as a team. He was down, we were down, it was pretty simple, to be honest.”
The Nets have actually fared pretty well without Irving, currently sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference with a 23-9 record. That's much in part to KD, who is in the midst of a fantastic campaign. He's averaging a league-best 29.7 points while also shooting 38% from three-point land.
Irving meanwhile has apparently been training and staying fit in the hope of a return, despite his vaccination status. The former NBA champion has no plans of getting the jab, but the Nets don't seem too concerned with it. They just want to see him link up with Durant and James Harden. And with COVID-19 destroying the league right now, any helping hand would be nice for Brooklyn, especially when it's a seven-time All-Star.