UP FOR DISNEY

High reward for Nets

Does Vaughn see the same vision Atkinson and Marks did?

It’s fair to say that Vaughn is coaching for his job, and the Orlando bubble will be his showcase. The Nets have eight regular season games to protect their playoff standing. They currently sit seventh in the Eastern Conference, a half-game ahead of the eighth-place Magic and six games ahead of Bradley Beal’s ninth-seeded Washington Wizards.

The 22 NBA teams returning to play amid the coronavirus pandemic will play the next eight opponents on their schedule, provided that team has also been invited to the bubble. The next eight for the Nets, in order, are the: Clippers, Kings, Wizards, Celtics, Magic and Trail Blazers. No game is an easy win. The Nets must enter the Orlando bubble with caution. If the ninth seed is within four games of the eighth seed after the eightgame regular season finale, there will be a play-in tournament that’s single-elimination for the eighth seed and double elimination for the ninth. If the ninth seed (contender) beats the eighth seed (defender) twice in a row, they’ll leapfrog their way into the playoffs.

The Nets don’t have Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant walking through that door, and David Nwaba just signed with Houston, so he’s not coming back either. Remaining a playoff team will be their toughest challenge yet: Vaughn has only coached two games as Atkinson’s replacement this season.

He won both of them, the last of which was an impressive win in Los Angeles against the Lakers on March 10.

For the Nets, the magic number is five: Five wins get the Nets into the playoffs, which would be a heck of an accomplishment for a team that’s been stricken with injury all season.

The Theo Pinson-Tyler Johnson swap is more evidence proving the Nets are done waiting for their turn to sit at the table.

The team in Brooklyn wants its seat now. It needs to be warm when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving come to feast.