Nets close in on full strength as Kyrie’s cleared
The Nets have no clue what they look like at full strength.
That, however, is about to change.
The Eastern Conference-best and championship-favorite Nets have jumped out to a 23-9 start to the regular season. They have done so without Kyrie Irving (previously ineligible for road games), in large part without Joe Harris (left ankle surgery), and with a roster that has featured 12 starting lineups through the first third of the season.
Yet all the Nets wanted for Christmas was a fully healthy roster, and Santa has already added a candy cane on top in delivering “Houston Harden” in an express shipment to Los Angeles. For his next act, Mr. Kringle cleared Irving, Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge from the league’s health and safety protocols on Tuesday.
Durant and Aldridge are expected to play right away, perhaps as soon as Thursday’s home matchup against Philadelphia.
Nets coach Steve Nash said Irving is expected to rejoin the team (for road games only) after a one-to-two-week ramp-up conditioning period in practice. Harris is also expected to return from his ankle sprain in the coming weeks.
In the New Year, the Nets will have new strength.
“(Our) confidence is through the roof,” Harden said after leading the Nets to wins over the Lakers and Clippers. Harden has played the last two games without Durant and Aldridge and is coming off the best games of his season. “Now just you add KD, and Kai, and LaMarcus and Joe Harris, and that’s four of our best players, four of our top players that are out.”
You can’t, as Nash says, put the cart before the horse. You can’t count your chickens before they hatch.
The Nets still need to be fortunate. They need to get lucky with a streak of good health, a streak that’s eluded this team since the stars aligned. That health doesn’t just mean avoiding injuries — it also includes the personal responsibility that comes with evading a positive COVID-19 result.
The New Year comes with new blessings for a team that hit its stride amid a chaotic start to the season. The Nets have won games with just eight or nine players, with just one of their two stars, playing lineups with four rookies at a time or despite bad shooting nights.
Emerging from those absences are Nash’s Coach of the Year campaign, and Sean Marks’ likely futile run for Executive of the Year, given the rapid reconstruction of the Bulls.
The Nets continue to rank as a top five defense and have leaned on role players — be it Patty Mills, DeAndre’ Bembry, James Johnson, Bruce Brown and Nic Claxton — to support a starting cast that has been in flux all season long.
“Our confidence level for our bench and guys that are in the game is high,” Harden said. “They can come in the game and impact the game in different ways, and we can find different ways to win basketball games, and that’s what it’s about. It’s not always gonna be pretty, we’re not always gonna make shots, but defensively we can get after it and lock teams down. Guys stepped up big on this road trip.”
The challenge ahead lies in retaining continuity amid more drastic changes to the lineup. Irving is going to play on the road, but not at home due to New York City’s vaccine mandate. Aldridge is set to return and could reclaim starting center status over Claxton. Harris is also a starter when he returns, as Mills was signed to captain the second unit. Not to mention the Nets have leaned on four rookies — Cam Thomas, David Duke Jr., Kessler Edwards and Day’Ron Sharpe — who have proven capable of filling in through the first third of the season.