The Brooklyn Nets find themselves in some uncharted waters. According to FanDuel, they're still among the favorites to win the Eastern Conference. Yet if it weren't for the NBA adding a play-in tournament, they wouldn't even be playoff bound right now, which is crazy to think about.
The Nets are tied for 10th place in the standings with LaMelo Ball's Charlotte Hornets. While the Nets are the only play-in team that should strike fear in any of the East's top teams, they still have to get to the first round first.
After the 122-115 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, Kyrie Irving, in a bit of a shooting slump since returning to full-time status, was asked about the Nets' unique position as a supposed contending team while having played so few games together as a unit and now finding themselves dangling at the bottom of the play-in bracket. Do they ever stop to think about how unusual that is?
*Listen to the latest Nothing But Nets podcast for discussion on play-in scenarios and possible first-round matchups*
Irving had a surprising analogy for reporters.
“You go home, and this is just a metaphor,” Irving said. “You go home, you get your bulletproof vest, go get your hand gun, go get your rocket launcher, ya go get your AK, ya go get everything, load up all the ammo, this is just a metaphor people, but you go home, you get ready for war and you don't just live with the results but you go out there with a mental focus and a no-fear attitude and you really play for each other.”
The “good” news is that the Nets have clinched a play-in berth. That means they're destined to finish in between the No. 7 seed and the 10th seed. Basketball-Reference.com puts their odds at over 70 percent to finish as either the No. 9 or 10 seed after the remaining four games have been played. Whether they're the 9 or the 10 would determine home-court advantage in the first play-in game. As of today, that game would be a single-game elimination match in Charlotte for another bout vs. LaMelo and the Hornets. The loser goes fishing.
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If they lost like that, their season would be over and there would be some important offseason questions to tend to in time. Kyrie Irving's free agency feels like a forgone conclusion at this point. Whether they'd shop Joe Harris along with the newly acquired picks they got from the Sixers is another question looming, as are the futures of Andre Drummond and Nic Claxton.
If they won, they'd travel to face the loser of the 7-8 game. As of now, that would be either Cleveland (struggling mightily without Jarrett Allen, out since March 7 with an injured middle finger) or the Hawks. If Saturday's game was any indication, while the Hawks may not be world beaters, they're just good enough to take Kevin Durant's best 55-point punch in the mouth and still come away with a home win.
So, the Nets may need all of those metaphorical rocket launchers and AKs. Are they a sleeping giant, who simply didn't get to play many games together, or did it just take us too long to see that in some ways they're already on to the 2022-23 season? It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.
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