With two games already postponed because of the raging pandemic which has left ten Nets in health and safety protocols, the team will play the waiting game. The Brooklyn Nets will wait for their players to start returning negative Covid-19 tests. Three of those players happen to be superstars. Kevin Durant and James Harden have carried the team all season long. The newest eligible member of the team, for road games at least, will be Kyrie Irving. Sitting at 21-9, first place in the Eastern Conference, Steve Nash's team has played pretty well given all the wild circumstances.

After the team's shorthanded 100-93 loss to the Orlando Magic, Blake Griffin talked about their mindset amidst all of the Covid chaos.

“As far as when everybody comes back we'll take bodies, as many bodies as we can,” said Griffin. “When Ky comes back we'll obviously welcome him back, we're excited to have him back so we'll kinda cross that bridge when it comes to it. Right now there's too much chaos to like worry about anything else in the future there we can't control at the moment,” admitted the former first overall pick.

In addition to Griffin, it's been Patty Mills who has emerged as one of the team's few available veterans to lead them while Kevin Durant and James Harden are unavailable.

“Obviously [there's] adversity,” said the former Spurs guard, “where we're kinda going day-by-day at the moment trying to keep healthy trying to obviously do all the right things. It's a difficult time at the moment, you're not sure what's happening so you just gotta stay ready….of course it'll be great [to get Irving back]. It feels like we're kinda dropping like flies at the moment so any hep we can get.”

So the Nets have explained the decision to bring Irving back into the fold as a response to all of the unavailable players. Is it possible that once things become stable they'll reevaluate the latest decision to bring Irving back into the fold?

On Saturday, GM Sean Marks and was asked if Irving's return means the seven-time All-Star will be back in the fold for the playoffs, or if this is more of a short-term response to the lack of bodies now and something they might revisit yet again.

“I think that's a little bit of a hypothetical, I'm not sure what's around the corner…so I think it's a little bit of like let's navigate what's going on right now in front of us, which is the game tonight, but then let's look at what happens in a week, two weeks, a month, two months and just see where the team is,” said Marks. “We're… going to embrace Ky and get him back in the fold here.”

It's a safe and diplomatic answer. It's hard to imagine the team changing their minds and dealing with the optics of welcoming back an unvaccinated player as Covid numbers soar, only to change their minds again down the road. But perhaps, if Irving were to act out somehow, if science suggested it's simply too risky for him or for his team to be around them and play, they'd look at their decision.

One gets the sense that Governor Joe Tsai is not someone who worries about the optics of changing his mind, as long as he feels he is making the right decision. That's presumably why we're here at this point today.

If you ask this humble beat reporter, there exist very few scenarios where Irving would get banned by his team again. It seems that once he returns a couple negative Covid tests, he'll ramp up for a permanent (albeit road-only) return. Of course, if he were to get vaccinated it would render even the slimmest of scenarios he's banned again nil.

So how do the available players put all of this out of their minds and focus on basketball? After all, there are tough away games coming against the Portland Trailblazers, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers this holiday season. And there's no guarantee the Nets will have any of their “big three” available for that slate.

“You look around the locker room,” said Mills, “and you see who we do have. How much hard work these young boys have put in together deserve the opportunity to make an impact on an NBA game. So when you look around the locker room and see who we have it's like ‘alright let's go,' you know?”

Next man up has officially been taken to the next level. But it looks like the Nets will have a full-arsenal of star power at least for road games once they're all healthy enough to suit up.