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The Brooklyn Nets will kick off their first playoff appearance since 2015 on Saturday afternoon, when they take on the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center in Game 1 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series at 2:40 p.m. ET.
The Nets come into play as the sixth seed in the East and are massive underdogs in this series.
The 76ers are far superior in terms of talent, boasting three All-Star caliber players in Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler and Ben Simmons and a very nice forward in Tobias Harris.
Embiid had a lowkey MVP-caliber season, and while Simmons still lacks any semblance of a jump shot, his playmaking ability and athleticism makes him dangerous. We know how good Butler is, and while Harris is a bit inconsistent, if he is feeling it, he's a tough cover.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn wasn't even supposed to be here. This was expected to be a rebuilding season for a Nets team that was in dire straits for the past few years, and it actually seemed hard to imagine Brooklyn even taking any real steps forward during the 2018-19 campaign.
But, the Nets actually won 42 games thanks largely to their point guard tandem of D'Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie, with Russell averaging 21.1 points per game in the starting spot and Dinwiddie playing the role of Lou Williams off the bench.
Not only that, but big man Jarrett Allen showed significant improvement and looks primed to develop into a Clint Capela type of player moving forward. Plus, Joe Harris lit up nets around the NBA with a 47.4 percent efficiency rate from downtown, and guys like Caris LeVert, DeMarre Carroll and Ed Davis filled solid niches.
Obviously, the Nets are outmatched by the Sixers, but of all of the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series, this seems like the one that is most likely to be a surprise.
Philly always has a difficult time defending point guards, and Brooklyn's offense is entirely built off of its guard play. Russell and Dinwiddie have punctured even the best defenses in the league this season, and with the 76ers not having a real answer for either player outside of maybe Butler, the Nets guards could have a big series.
But even that won't be enough against a Philadelphia squad that is simply better than Brooklyn.
The Nets need an X-factor, and they need to exploit that X-factor four times out of seven games to win this series.
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That X-factor is Brooklyn's depth.
No one is going to confuse the Nets for the Boston Celtics or the Toronto Raptors, but they do have a decent bench, and it is one that is certainly better than the Sixers' assortment of misfits and question marks.
Many have maintained all year that the 76ers' lack of depth would be their downfall in the playoffs, and while hardly anyone figured it would come at the hands of a team like the Nets, Brooklyn can at least make this series competitive with that edge.
Dinwiddie is the first guy off the Nets' bench, and he is far better than anything Philadelphia can bring off of its pine. The Sixers have tried jumbling their reserves throughout the year, making small trades and perusing the waiver wire, but they have not found a very successful formula.
Allen Crabbe is out for the rest of the year, but Brooklyn still has wings like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and the aforementioned Carroll, two long, rangy defenders who can guard multiple positions. The Nets even have Jared Dudley, who, while he isn't even close to the player he was years ago, provides a stable veteran presence and can knock down the three-ball with regularity, something Philly has had trouble doing all season.
You then have Davis, an underrated big man who crashes the glass very well on both ends, protects the rim and is a threat on pick-and-rolls.
Again, these guys aren't world-beaters. The Nets are hardly the deepest team in the NBA, but they are certainly quite a bit deeper than the 76ers, a team that regularly trots out T.J. McConnell and doesn't really have any centers capable of spelling Embiid for stretches in the playoffs. Sorry, Boban Marjanovic fans, but Brooklyn will put Marjanovic in pick-and-rolls all day if he gets extended minutes.
What Brooklyn needs to do is utilize its depth advantage to try and wear down Philadelphia.
One thing we do know about Embiid is that he tends to get gassed late in games, so if he is forced to play heavy minutes, the Nets might be quite a bit fresher than him down the stretch, meaning they can exploit him in high screen-and-rolls.
Of course, the Nets are going to have to play a nearly perfect series to beat the 76ers. They can't turn the ball over, they can't let J.J. Redick go off from three-point range and they can't miss open looks and free throws.
But some teams can play a perfect series and still have no shot of beating the superior team.
Brooklyn, on the other hand, has an outside shot of giving this very thin Philadelphia team a run if everything falls into place.
