Quick hits

Nets GM Marks sees chance of Durant playing in 2019-20

For the second time in a week, Sean Marks left the door open to the notion of Kevin Durant recovering from his ruptured right Achilles tendon at some point during the 2019-20 season, but the Nets general manager was careful to stress that the Brooklyn Nets won’t put him at risk and the ultimate decision will be Durant’s.

Marks made his comments Tuesday in a WFAN interview with host Evan Roberts, and he echoed the sentiments he expressed a week earlier in a news conference at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas when asked if Durant might play in the coming season.

“From our standpoint, we’re going to let the performance team and his rehabilitation unfold the way it will,” Marks said. “I’d be doing an unfair judgment call if I said he is or he isn’t. I have no idea.

“We’re certainly not going to rush him back. There’s going to be absolutely none of that. We’ve got far too much invested in him, and we owe it to Kevin to get him back to 100 percent ... This is going to entirely be a Kevin Durant decision.”

Elaborating on a meeting Durant had with the Nets’ performance team on July 8, Marks said, “Since signing with us, he has met with all our performance team, and I could see from the look on his face that he was certainly pleased with what we had in front of him. He is going to attack this rehab like no other. I have complete confidence in that, listening to what he’s had to say and his complete buy-in so far.”

Whether or not Durant plays, Marks said the two-time NBA Finals MVP will make an impact in the Nets’ locker room and on the court simply with his presence, suggesting he might act effectively as an assistant coach during practices and games. “I’m sure our guys are going to be picking his brain because there isn’t a play or a circumstance that he hasn’t seen,” Marks said. “So, his value is definitely going to be seen on the court.”