The Brooklyn Nets came into Tuesday already shorthanded, but they had no idea how things would look by the end of the day. Without Kyrie Irving who is unvaccinated and unavailable, without Joe Harris (ankle) who is injured, the team experienced a slew of positive COVID-19 tests over the last 24 hours.

LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre' Bembry, Jevon Carter, James Johnson, Paul Millsap, James Harden and Bruce Brown–all vaccinated–have entered the league's health and safety protocol. They'll miss at least the next game against the visiting Toronto Raptors.

It sounds like there may be some Nets' staff in the protocol as well.

It's wild that the Nets have to play a basketball game with all of this going on. What if there may be new cases to come? Head coach Steve Nash spoke about that Tuesday evening as they geared up to face the Raptors.

“Its unfortunate for sure,” said Nash. “First we concern ourselves with [everyone's] health and safety. Fortunately for us, they're predominately asymptomatic but there will be a period of time required for them to test negative and have our full group together.”

“First of all, we're not naive enough to not have concerns about more people contracting the virus. But that's out of our hands. We just have to see what the test results are. There are a couple coaches, a couple staff  as well but overall we can't do a lot right now except wait for results to come in and control what's in our hands. We're in a sense playing the waiting game and gonna be ready to audible depending on what happens.”

Nash was right to prepare for more positive cases. He gave that update shortly before ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that James Harden and Bruce Brown had also entered the COVID-19 protocols. It seems likely Nash learned when the rest of us did. Good thing he already had an audible prepared.

Hopefully the players continue to remain asymptomatic.

But what on Earth is the second-year head coach's plan for the rotation, down so many players?

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“Do you have any ideas?” Quipped a befuddled Steve Nash, returning-to-sender the question and acknowledging the absurdity of it all.

So the Nets are now down to eight players for a basketball game that might be better off being postponed altogether. Imagine how not excited the Raptors will be to play the Nets, given this outbreak Brooklyn is dealing with?

These are truly unprecedented times. And it seems things like ticket sales and revenue is why the league wants to push forward with the game here. But with this many Nets on the shelf, some even being ruled out within an hour or so from tip, it seems like a dicey proposition to forge ahead.

We'll keep an eye on it. If more Nets or players on the Raps test positive in the coming days, this endeavor will feel like a predictable disaster that was preventable all along.

I had to check my phone twelve times before submitting thi just in case more players were ruled out or the game had been postponed. This is wild. Like Steve Nash said, stay ready for another audible.