Can Kevin Durant drag the Brooklyn Nets to a championship?

The Brooklyn Nets currently sit at eighth in the Eastern Conference with a 32-32 record on the season. What’s crazy about it is, they’re only 2.5 games up on the Washington Wizards who are in 12th.

That’s right. The almighty Nets who formed one of the greatest super-teams of all time last year are just 2.5 games away from being knocked out of the play-in altogether.

In reality, there’s very little chance they let themselves fall that far down the standings. In all likelihood, Brooklyn will nab the eighth seed in the playoffs this year.

Can Kevin Durant drag the Brooklyn Nets to a championship?

But that still puts them very far away from their end goal of a championship. Sure, getting some injured players back will help, but this Nets run will ultimately come down to one man – Kevin Durant.

When Durant plays this season, the Nets are 24-13. When he doesn’t play, they are 8-19. That’s a pretty stark difference, especially with how close they are to being knocked out of the play-in.

However, Durant is back now. He made his return to the court against the Miami Heat on Thursday night, and although Miami took home the win, Durant managed to put up 31 points in his return.

It wasn’t the most efficient 31 in the world, but the fact that the Nets, who have been struggling mightily, only lost to the Heat by six shows the impact one player can have.

Sure, having both Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons available to play will certainly boost the Nets, but if they want any chance at a championship, things are going to run through Durant.

Is that going to happen this season? Probably not. But Durant is one of the few players in the NBA that’s good enough to drag a team to a championship on his own.

Again, it’s not very likely, but if the Nets can drag themselves into the playoffs, maybe Durant can drag them all the way to a title. He’s just that good.