Brooklyn Nets fourth-year small forward Taurean Prince tested positive for COVID-19, it was revealed early Tuesday evening, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Brooklyn Nets forward Taurean Prince has tested positive for the coronavirus and will sit out the NBA’s restart in Orlando, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2020
Prince, 26, joins Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie as another positive test for the coronavirus, which earlier in March — around the time of the NBA's 2019-20 season hiatus — already had infected four individuals on the Atlantic Division club.
According to Wojnarowski, due to his diagnosis, Prince will not join the Nets in their planned NBA restart participation in Orlando, Florida. Dinwiddie and two other Brooklyn players, veterans center DeAndre Jordan and forward Wilson Chandler, will also sit out.
The Nets are shorthanded at the moment; in addition to the four players mentioned sitting out of the Orlando “bubble” for the Nets, injured stars point guard Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant (the latter of whom did not play at all in the 2019-20 campaign) are not competing for Brooklyn in central Florida.
The Nets, at 30-34, possess the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture at the time of the season's suspension in March. The Nets, starting at the end of July, are scheduled to play seven teams in eight games to finish off the regular season and potentially head into the postseason (all in Orlando).
Among those teams are the East's best Milwaukee Bucks and eighth-seed Orlando Magic (twice). With four players unable to play for the Nets, Brooklyn will likely sign four “replacement” players to take their place and fill the 15-man roster.
Prince, a 6-foot-7 forward out of Baylor, arrived in Brooklyn over the previous offseason via trade with the Atlanta Hawks, where he spent the first three seasons of his NBA tenure. In October of last year, Prince signed a two-year, $29 million contract extension to stay with the Nets through 2021-22.
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