New York Mayor Eric Adams has publicly stated that the New York government plans to gradually lift the mandatory vaccination decree in the coming weeks, which means that Kyrie Irving will bid farewell to part-time player status and return to full-time status, which can play in the Nets home game.
As soon as Adams said this, the Nets were angry and happy, and James Harden was afraid that he would scold his mother in his heart.
Why did you go earlier?
Before the start of the season, New York banned unvaccinated players from playing in home games, meaning Irving could only play away games. This ban has a huge impact on the Nets, and it can even be said that it has affected the fate of the team and some players. Irving has missed a lot of games, the Nets are now only 8th in the East, and Harden has made a deal to leave the Nets to join the 76ers.
League President Adam Xiaohua publicly said that the ban issued by New York is meaningless, because this ban is only for the Nets and Knicks who have not been vaccinated, but the away team comes to New York to play, and the unvaccinated players in the away team can still play.
In the face of Xiao Hua's accusations and the pressure of public opinion, the New York government is finally ready to lift the ban. That's certainly good news for the Nets, but after a few twists and turns, the Nets have just 23 games left, and will they have enough time to regroup after undergoing roster adjustments?
The Nets' current situation seems good at first glance, and in Harden's deal they got three instant battles from Ben Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond, and the Nets successfully signed Dragic to become the big winner in the buyout market. After the lineup adjustment, the strength of the new version of the Nets has not regressed compared with before, and the depth has even improved a lot.
But the biggest lesson the Nets have learned in the past two years is that basketball is not about book strength. At this stage, the Nets face too many question marks.
Durant, who was able to return quickly after the All-Star hiatus, maintained his excellent form after suffering a serious Achilles tendon injury, but he had two consecutive seasons of extremely low attendance. Durant's physical durability is now a big question mark, and no one knows if Durant will be able to stay fit in the sprint after his comeback, especially considering that Steve Nash often let him play 38 or even 40 minutes.
According to Nash, Durant's comeback would be ahead of Simmons. Simmons joined the Nets with a smile, attended training on time, and was also practicing shooting with Korver, with a professional attitude. But after all, Simmons has not played for a long time, and has not played so far this season, how is his physical and competitive state? Has his psychological problems been solved? How exactly will the Nets use him? Can he accept Nash's reinvention of him? These are unknowns.
It's good that Irving is expected to return to full-time form, but Adams is talking about "weeks" and he hasn't said it to death, so it's also unknown when Irving will play at home. The American reporter analyzed that Irving could play in the home game on March 16 at the latest, but there are still more than 20 days left before that day.
Nets striker Joe Harris is still recuperating from injury, having played just 14 games for ankle surgery, and Harris, who was supposed to be back, has now returned, but his recovery from injury is not ideal. According to the latest news, the Nets will soon review Harris to determine if he needs to undergo a second surgery. If Harris moves the knife again, he will be reimbursed for the season. Without the season's elite shooter, who shot 46.6 percent from three-point range, the Nets have one less head-on edge and space point.
The Nets are now just looking scary with book strength, and in fact they have a lot of problems to solve. Originally, after the All-Star Game, the championship teams would go all out to enter the sprint stage and strive for a more favorable ranking position, but the Nets had to play with a large number of question marks and grind the lineup while trying to solve various problems.
The Nets' biggest problem now is the run-in and the inside line, and Durant will find that the lineup around him has changed dramatically compared to the trade deadline. Nets players stayed on the team to run into Simmons, Seth, Drummond, Dragic. Among the four new signings, Simmons and Dragic have not played for a long time and need time to find their form. Both need balls, how do the Nets distribute the ball? In addition, Seth and Dragic are all backcourts, Drummond is a center, the competition between these two positions is already fierce, and nash needs time to figure out how to line up.
Simmons' arrival did give the Nets the defensive versatility and flanking intensity they needed, but the Nets' interior defense didn't add much to it. In this day and age, traditional centers are far less defensively charged than they used to be, and Drummond's Defensive No. 1 Lakers last year didn't play much, let alone come to the Backcourt and the Nets, which have more defensive holes on the flanks. Before the All-Star Game, the Nets lost to the Wizards, and Drummond's defensive limitations were obvious, with four fouls in the 19th minute and the Nets conceding 54 points inside.
In this chaotic season, the Nets, with 23 games left, theoretically have plenty of time to improve their rankings. But as things stand, the Nets' most realistic goal is to stay healthy, work hard, and try to "escape" the playoffs and enter the top six in the East directly into the playoffs.
The Nets are now 3.5 wins ahead of the 11th-placed Wizards in the East, only 2.5 wins behind the 6th-place Celtics in the East, and as long as Durant returns in time, the Nets are unlikely to fall to 11th place in the East, and the chances of catching up with the Celtics are still very large.
Because the Nets rank 13th in the league in terms of remaining schedule difficulty, the average win rate of the remaining opponents is 50.4%, while the Celtics rank 10th in the remaining schedule difficulty, slightly higher than the Nets.
The Nets will have to play against the Heat and bucks twice each, and this season the Nets have lost all 4 of these two teams, and 3 of them are fiasco. The Nets also have to play 2 games each against the Celtics and Raptors, two direct competitors in the playoffs, and they also have to play 1 game each against the Grizzlies, Jazz, 76ers and Cavaliers. If the full-body Nets can win a few more of those tough games, they have a chance to overtake the Celtics.
To reach the top four in the East, the Nets must use the Bucks' remaining schedule to find a way to squeeze out the Bucks, who are 4.5 wins away from the Bucks.
However, for the Nets, the 3rd place in the East may be the limit, because the Nets are 7 wins away from the Bulls and Heat. Although the remaining schedule of the Bulls is difficult, Zach Lavin will return after the All-Star Game, and the two main players of Lonzo Ball and Caruso are getting closer and closer to the comeback, and the fully formed Bulls are not afraid of the difficulty of the schedule. The Heat are only 16th in difficulty on the remaining schedule, and their chances of holding the top spot in the East are still high.
Therefore, the most realistic goal of the Remaining Nets schedule is to ensure Durant's health, so that Simmons can find the feeling of playing and integrate into the Nets, and improve the intensity of the interior defense. To do this, even if the Nets playoffs start from the road, they have the courage to rush to the championship.