With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving rehabbing and a brand new head coach doubtlessly on the way in which, the Nets’ principal objective is bringing the NBA championship trophy to Brooklyn in 2021.
Profitable the 2020 title in late September in Disney World earlier than no followers and with interim coach Jacques Vaughn isn’t their highest precedence.
Nonetheless, the 2 likeliest codecs to be adopted for the season’s restart — a 20-team or 22-team occasion — doesn’t dramatically alter their probabilities.
The 22-team occasion — bringing six additional groups to the Mickey Mouse ball — could be most useful to the Nets, who have been seeded seventh on the March 11 suspension of play.
That 22-team state of affairs would exclude the Nets from any kind of play-in format to make the 16-team principal occasion. They’d be solidified at No. 7 within the East — which they earned with a 30-34 clip.
Most certainly, based on sources, the six additional groups would compete with the 2 No. eight seeds from every convention in an eight-team single-elimination event. The highest two finishers would advance to the playoffs with the Nets awaiting.
The six additional groups could be invited on the idea of being inside six video games of the eighth seed on March 11. The Pelicans and Zion Williamson, the Blazers and Carmelo Anthony, Kings, Spurs, Suns and Wizards would all achieve entry to Orlando.
The 20-team format is much less pleasant to the Nets’ possibilities of advancing.
This format could be much like group levels from the soccer world. 5 teams of 4 groups — based mostly on regular-season data — would start the playoffs.
Every crew would play the others of their group twice. The highest two groups would advance. These additional 4 groups invited to Disney all could be from the harder Western Convention (Pelicans, Blazers, Kings, Spurs).
If the Nets don’t have Durant (Achilles) or Irving (shoulder), then their possibilities of shifting on could be slim. The NBA homeowners will vote on a format Thursday.
It’s clear — with their super-cautious method to Durant — the Nets usually are not gung-ho about pulling out all of the stops for an unsure playoff run.
The season reopener is predicted to be July 31 — and that’s 13 months since his Achilles surgical procedure.
Nevertheless, the Nets are involved Durant’s rehab was disrupted in March by the COVID-19 lockdown simply as he had begun enjoying 5-on-5 contact scrimmages with teammates and player-development coaches.
That gradual work was a key a part of his rehab at the moment however the pandemic compelled him to cease scrimmaging for greater than two months. The Nets don’t seem prepared to take the slightest danger, however the ultimate name could also be as much as Durant, who in any other case wouldn’t make his Nets’ debut till round Dec. 25.
Nets president Sean Marks gave a touch the Nets have been leaning conservative when he mentioned in a latest interview he’s “enthusiastic about [Durant] on the ground at Barclays in entrance of that fan base.’’
The Nets are formulating a plan to refund their season-ticket holders for the missed regular-season video games at Barclays. The Knicks started refunds three weeks in the past.
