The Brooklyn Nets are traveling in uncharted waters

The Brooklyn Nets are an odd bunch at the best of times, but as their season hits some turbulence it’s hard to know how things may play out.

It was a foregone conclusion from the moment that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving signed with the Brooklyn Nets that there would be some unusual moments ahead. In season one, Irving missed time with injury and Durant missed the entire season rehabilitating his ruptured Achilles, and as expected it was a lost season.

This season began with high hopes. The two superstars were healthy and as close to 100 percent as you can be with the mileage they have, and the Nets got off to a great start by dominating the Golden State Warriors from the opening tip.

Again, we knew things would get strange this season, even at the best of times. In a time of continued social and political unrest and an ongoing pandemic, that’s even more true. A week ago, after the US Capitol was stormed by rebellious insurgents bent on overthrowing the American government, Irving took essentially a personal day and didn’t play the following night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Considering how many of us were glued to our televisions and social media feeds with our collective productivity dropping off a cliff, it’s hard to criticize a player who is as sensitive to current affairs as Kyrie Irving needing a minute to gather himself.

It’s been longer than that minute now and video footage of him celebrating his sister and father’s birthday has surfaced, but we’re not going to pretend to weigh whether that’s justified or out of line or anything along those lines. We only address it because it happened, and the Brooklyn Nets are going to have to deal with the fallout of this situation from a competitive standpoint.

Kevin Durant missed time over the past week due to the NBA’s COVID health and safety protocols and is back, but at the soonest, Irving won’t be back until at least next week. Considering how often his absences tend to be significantly longer than anticipated, the Nets might not want to count on his return even that quickly.

They’re currently 5-6, and while Kevin Durant has been playing spectacular basketball when he’s on the floor, he probably isn’t going to be an every-game kind of player for the remainder of this season. He will likely continue getting nights off on back-to-backs to preserve him for later in the season and the playoffs

As you might expect from a team when they’re without their two best players, the Brooklyn Nets get outscored by a significant margin when Durant and Irving are off the court. In 537 such possessions, they have a -6.7 net rating.

11 games isn’t a huge sample, but this is an abbreviated season. Simply from a health and load management standpoint, there are going to be plenty of games which Durant and Irving will miss just in the normal course of matters.

The longer Irving misses time, the more likely we may find that this is not in fact a legitimate championship contender. Getting into the playoffs as a low or middling seed and getting to play some combination of the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks in three straight rounds is a great way to get yourself bounced out of the postseason much earlier than expected.

The story hasn’t been written yet for this team, but we’re starting to see a concerning outline of the structure of the tale every game that goes by.