This season's trade deadline has passed, and the teams have upgraded their respective squads on the basis of the original. Today's Nets away to miami heat, the former 10 consecutive losses ranked eighth in the East, the latter is four consecutive wins to the top of the Eastern Conference. Previously, the Nets had traded Harden and Millsap to Philadelphia in exchange for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond.
The deal happened so abruptly that none of the Nets' three new signings had time to catch up with today's game. In this game, Irving led the remnants of the Nets to challenge the Heat, playing 41 minutes, 10 of 22 shooting, 29 points, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block; rookie Thomas played 32 minutes, 8 of 18 shots, cut 22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal.
The Nets' current situation has become even more worrisome after the trade with Harden, with team guard Kyrie Irving waiting 14 days after today's game. In those 14 days, the Nets had only one away game, and coincidentally, the opponent in this away game was the Knicks, who were also in New York.
Therefore, according to the relevant epidemic prevention regulations, Irving will not be allowed to play in the away game against the Knicks, and because Irving has always refused to be vaccinated, this will also prevent him from playing in the Nets' home game. In this way, Irving will miss four games for the Nets in these 14 days.
It is worth mentioning that in the rest of the season, the Nets have a total of 25 games, including 11 away games, and 11 away games against the Knicks on April 7, which means that Irving can only play 10 more regular season games this season and miss the remaining 15 home games, which is very unfavorable for the Nets. At present, Durant's injury is still not more favorable news, if the Nets can not stop the bleeding in time, according to their current record of 29 wins and 27 losses, they are likely to play in the playoffs, and even miss the playoff stage this season.
After trading Harden for Seth Curry, Ben Simmons and Andre Drummond, the Nets are once again considered the team with the most hopes of winning the championship this season. Sending away James Harden and Millsap, who was reluctant to play for the team, was replaced by Ben Simmons, who was relatively better defensively, to make up for the team's defensive shortcomings, while Seth Curry was able to compensate for the Nets' outside firepower in Joe Harris' absence, and Andre Drummond was able to provide more protection for the Nets' inner line. In this way, it seems that the Nets are safe to lose, but will Simmons really be a better fit for the team than Harden?
That's not necessarily, to know that the Nets have little left in this season's schedule, after the Nets have this deal, they still need time to run into the team, on paper, they did complete the reinforcement in the second half of the regular season, but some of their players have adapted to the rhythm of playing with Harden, aside from anything else, in terms of organizing the team, Simmons may not be better than Harden. Sudden substitutions at such junctures are very disadvantageous for any team.