Nets still making strides
thy and we get whole,” he said. “Playing well without those guys only continues to advance the group and advance our floor.”
This not only happened without LeVert and Irving, but also without Wilson Chandler, who returns to the rotation on Dec. 15 when he finishes serving a 25-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use.
Most importantly, the Nets haven’t had Kevin Durant.
“We have no idea what our ceiling is,” Dinwiddie said. “We’re not even close to healthy.
The top-two scorer of all-time is rehabbing his foot right now. You feel me? So we have no idea how good we can be. It’s gonna be fun to explore that.
“I just think that it’s encouraging to know that our floor is continuing to rise.”
It’s very encouraging to know that the team, led by the longesttenured Nets player, is thriving while Irving is out. The Nets, though, are 4-7 in games Irving has played, and those losses weren’t encouraging, like the two in their last three games.
Rather, they were ugly, and the task of reintegrating Irving into the rotation will pose a challenge as Irving progresses. The date is not yet known, but Kenny Atkinson says the star point guard is back performing on-court drills with no contact.
With his return date near and the team playing well in his absence, Irving doesn’t have anything to prove except that he can help this team win ballgames. That will be the standard by which his first year in Brooklyn is judged. Then, Durant’s return should catapult the Nets into another tier in this conference.