The hottest team in the NBA will now have to survive without its best player.
Kevin Durant will reportedly miss at least two weeks with an MCL sprain in his right knee after a collision with Jimmy Butler on Sunday. KD has been fantastic so far this season, averaging 29.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists for the red-hot Nets, who are 17–2 since Nov. 27. Unfortunately, injuries are becoming somewhat the norm for Durant. He played in only 35 games two seasons ago and 55 games last season. He missed six weeks with a sprained MCL in his left knee last year, and Brooklyn went 8–19 without him in the lineup.
There are reasons to be optimistic for this upcoming stretch, however. The Nets have been significantly less of a train wreck since Jacque Vaughn took over the team. Brooklyn has seemingly escaped the self-inflicted drama and distractions that have plagued the team for much of the last two years. While winning without Durant will not be simple, unlike last year, the Nets will not also be dealing with trade rumors and Kyrie Irving playing only part time.
This year’s roster is much better equipped to handle Durant’s absence. T.J. Warren is playing well off the bench. Royce O’Neale is a solid vet. Joe Harris is healthy. Nic Claxton has taken a step up. And Ben Simmons, while not his All-NBA former self, looks much better than he did at the start of the season. The depth, as well as Vaughn’s work with the Nets’ defense, should have the team much better positioned to play without Durant than the previous two years.
Brooklyn has also played well in Irving’s solo time so far this season. In 296 minutes with Irving on the floor and Durant off, the Nets have an impressive 5.1 net rating. Sustaining that in a larger sample will be a challenge, and surviving bench groups when Irving sits will be even more difficult, but it’s something to build on.
The upcoming schedule is also not as bad as it could be. Durant is scheduled to be reevaluated Jan. 23. Until then, the Nets will play the Celtics, Thunder, Spurs, Suns, Jazz and Warriors. The final four of those six games are on the road, but three of those teams are under .500, and the Suns are dealing with numerous injuries of their own. (Not only will those games against the Celtics and Warriors be difficult for Brooklyn, but it’s also a massive bummer from an entertainment standpoint that Durant will be missing from those matchups.)
It will definitely be fascinating to see how the Nets ultimately respond without Durant, and it’s possible his absence could lead to a long-term benefit. Before the season, KD specifically cited the way the team played without him in the lineup as one of the reasons he requested a trade in the summer.
“When I went out with the injury, we lost 10 in a row,” Durant said in September. “And I’m like, we shouldn’t be losing some of these games that we lost, regardless of who’s on the floor. So I was more so worried about how we’re approaching every day as a basketball team. And I felt like we could have fought through a lot of the stuff that I felt that held us back.”
Though the Nets would certainly prefer to have Durant in the lineup, his upcoming absence is an opportunity to prove the team’s culture and habits are in a different place than they were a season ago. If the team is able to succeed without him, it could build even more trust between a player, coach and franchise that have gone through some rough patches.
And if Durant ends up missing only two weeks, then the Nets are in position to withstand a little bit of a drop-off in play after rocketing up the standings over the last six weeks. An injury to a team’s best player is obviously never a good thing. For the Nets specifically, an opportunity to overcome adversity in the short term could help prove this club’s championship mettle in the long run. Considering where this team was during the first few weeks of the season, that’s a welcome challenge.
