NEW YORK — If the playoffs started today, the Nets would qualify for the play-in tournament, which means they’d be one win away from seeding seventh in the Eastern Conference — and two losses away from missing the postseason altogether.
That kind of seeding wouldn’t be very “P” of a team that calls itself a championship contender.
Thankfully the playoffs don’t start today; they start in mid-April, and the Nets have 23 more games to climb up the Eastern Conference standings and finish in a respectable place.
That’s only if they can get healthy and put it all together in time — and if they can continue weathering the storm and plugging the holes in the ship left in the aftermath of Hurricane Harden.
“It’s only, what, 23 games left? You don’t want to play in the [play-in game],” said new Nets addition Goran Dragic after Wednesday’s practice. “You want to be in the top six. This is our goal for now.”
Out goes James Harden, and in come Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond. In a subsequent move, the Nets waived reserve point guard Jevon Carter to make space on the roster for the veteran Dragic, who projects to play a significant role when he improves his conditioning after spending most of the season back home in Slovenia, banished by a Toronto Raptors team that sought a youth movement.
The Nets’ season began by integrating 10 new faces into a roster that was an ankle sprain and a hamstring strain away from competing for an NBA championship. If that wasn’t a blow to the team’s chemistry, this sure is: Kevin Durant hasn’t played since spraining his MCL on Jan. 15, Joe Harris hasn’t played since spraining his ankle on Nov. 14, Kyrie Irving can only play on the road (until Mayor Eric Adams repeals the city’s vaccine mandate), and Simmons continues to ramp-up his conditioning after sitting the entire front half of the season in Philadelphia.
Oh, and then there’s Dragic, a floor general tasked now with learning the entire Nets system with just 23 games left until the playoffs roll around.
“The challenge is forming the cohesion,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash after Wednesday’s practice at the HSS Training Facility in Industry City. “Whenever Kevin’s available, Ben’s available, Goran’s available, Joe potentially being available, trying to get that cohesion and building a team that’s ready for pressure moments and playing in a playoff scenario, and at the same time, trying to win the majority of our games here so we can climb out of the play-in and put ourselves in a position to move up the ladder a little bit before the playoffs start.”
The Nets are a confident group, maybe irrationally confident given they lost 13 of their last 15 games entering the NBA All-Star break. Their confidence is rooted in the talent on their roster, and they have a lot of it. Adding Simmons, Curry and Drummond to a group that already included Durant, Irving and Patty Mills changes how they can play on both ends of the floor.
It’s hard to find a team that can match the top-to-bottom talent Brooklyn has at its disposal, especially now that they’ve added Dragic, a former NBA All-Star point guard who’s started two-thirds of his career games.
“We’re jelling,” said veteran point-forward James Johnson after Nets practice. “I think we’re doing the right things, we started today and the things that we implemented and the things that we have set, goals set and things like that, I think they’re real realistic and I believe everybody believes.”
But the facts still remain: No NBA team has ever lost 10 or more games in a row, then gone on to win an NBA championship. There remains no timetable for Harris’ return after a setback in his ankle surgery rehab. Neither Durant nor Simmons are expected to play in either of the Nets’ two upcoming games, the first of which is at home, ruling Irving out against a Boston Celtics team that won 9 of their last 10 games entering the All-Star break and improved their roster by trading for Spurs guard Derrick White.
The Nets have the 13th toughest remaining schedule in all of basketball. That schedule includes a date with the red-hot Memphis Grizzlies, two matchups with the East’s leading Miami Heat, one date each with the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and the surprisingly-good Cleveland Cavaliers — and two matchups against, you guessed it, the reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks.
This, unfortunately, is the hole the Nets are in. They have played injured, they absorbed a blockbuster trade, they lost 11 games in a row, and are now putting together what they believe is a championship-level team — tasked with building championship-level chemistry — in the final third of the season, while also incorporating new faces onto the roster.
And somehow, they have to claw their way out of this hole, out of play-in tournament territory, into a favorable position as they pursue a championship.
“No excuses. No excuses anymore. Every game counts,” Dragic said. “You have to work each day,” “Especially (since) it’s a lot of new players. You have to jell as a unit and move toward that. We have smart players. Everyone knows how to play basketball. It just takes time to put all those pieces together and to be a strong unit.”
