Brooklyn Nets: Durant’s absence opens the door for Caris LeVert

With Kevin Durant quarantined for the next four games, the opportunity is there for Caris LeVert to step in and help keep the Brooklyn Nets afloat.

Kevin Durant will have to quarantine for the next seven days after exposure to a positive COVID-19 case, costing him the Brooklyn Nets’ next four games. Losing a player of KD’s caliber at any point in the season stings, but the Nets find themselves in a particular funk his absence only exacerbates.

Despite losing some punch following Spencer Dinwiddie’s ACL tear, Brooklyn’s offense has still been better than projected this early in the season, ranking fourth in scoring and 10th in rating. It’s the defensive end where this team’s woes run deep and have played a significant role in four losses over the last five games. Following consecutive outings to open the season where they held their opponent to under 100 points, the Nets defense has been seventh-worst over the last five games by surrendering 120 a night.

At least in the time it takes to sort out those defensive shortcomings, Brooklyn will be a team that runs up the score and relies on the heroics of their two stars to seal the deal. That strategy works when you have an engine like Durant powering production. Without their leading scorer putting in nearly 30 points a game, such a strategy becomes more difficult to rely on unless someone can step in to mitigate the scoring loss.

The NBA bubble was a relatively short-lived experience for the Nets after they were swept out of the first round by the Toronto Raptors. It was not without benefit, however, to certain individuals who, within the peculiar roster Brooklyn sent down to Disney, got the chance to show off their best work. And none took more advantage than Caris LeVert.

A months-long stoppage wasn’t enough to bring Durant and Kyrie Irving back on the court. Dinwiddie opted out of the bubble. LeVert was suddenly the lone source of self-created offense, and the Nets rode those skills for all they were worth en route to a surprising 5-3 finish in the seeding games including quality wins over the Bucks and Clippers.

LeVert averaged 25.0 points on 48.0 percent shooting with 6.7 assists a night en route to a spot on the All-Seeding Games Second Team. He scored an inefficient 20.3 points against a No. 2 defense in the playoffs (37.0 percent shooting) but made up for the shooting struggles by dishing out 9.5 assists per game across the four-game series.

A player with pockets of stardom sprinkled throughout his four years in the league validated what many believed he was capable of in a larger role. In the six seeding games he appeared in, LeVert’s shot attempts (20.5 a game) and usage rate (32.6) would’ve ranked inside the top-10 if stretched over the entire season.

Of course, the good times were met with the sobering reality that they wouldn’t extend into the following season, not with the return of two All-Stars and another capable 20-point scorer. Due to that fact, what LeVert’s role would be for the new-look Nets and how he’d perform in it was one of the more compelling questions for Brooklyn heading into the season.

Even with Dinwiddie sidelined, Steve Nash still has LeVert as the sixth man to try and replicate the circumstances that led to his bubble breakout. KD and Kyrie rank fifth and sixth, respectively, among Nets players in minutes alongside LeVert, gifting the young wing full control of the second unit for better or worse.

The early results haven’t been encouraging. After 20 points in the opener against a sad Golden State defense, LeVert has scored no more than 10 points in five of his last six outings.

Natural growing pains are to be expected in a different role with new teammates that bring along unfamiliar expectations. But it still feels like LeVert is leaving so much of his talent on the table where he could round out a trio of 20-point per game scorers, manifesting a certain level of frustration no matter how much patience is preached.

It’s hardly a coincidence that in these last six games, the lone time LeVert cracked more than 10 points came in place of a resting Durant and Irving on the second night of a back-to-back. Brooklyn took a five-point overtime loss to Memphis but LeVert appeared transported back to the bubble, hoisting a game-high 29 shots on his way to 28 points.

Those types of performances aren’t ideal alternatives in place of Durant, who along with a plethora of buckets is currently posting a career-high in true shooting (66.1 percent), but they’re the best Brooklyn has to try and keep a leaking ship from taking on more water.

If LeVert believes he’s capable of more than what Nash is having him do, the coming week offers the time to add to the data that already helps back that confidence up.

A successful fill-in won’t have his head coach deviate from what he maintains is the best for Brooklyn’s long-term aspirations. But a string of flashback performances — or simply the opportunity to produce them — might be the springboard a struggling LeVert needs to ignite the spark he can carry back over to the bench when Durant returns much more than an awkward place alongside him in the starting lineup ever could.