The NBA season is coming to a quick close, the Brooklyn Nets in their last contest fell to the Miami Heat and now sit at .500, with a record of 32-32. Tonight was supposed to be a day of celebration for Brooklyn, as their lead guy was returning from a 6 week absence due to a sprained MCL suffered on January 15th, but it ended up being a reality check that this team is running out of time.

There are 18 games left in the Brooklyn Nets 2021-2022 campaign and there is alot to figure out for a team with championship aspirations, that mainly revolve around their personnel and availability. When is Ben Simmons going to play, when will Kyrie Irving be eligible for home games in the Barclays Center and most importantly what is our eight man rotation going to look like once the playoffs come around?

The Brooklyn Nets this season have started 35 different lineups, with at least a 36th on the way as Kyrie and Kevin Durant haven’t started a game together next to Andre Drummond and Seth Curry, Brooklyn’s two other acquisitions who came over in the Ben Simmons deal last month. The starting lineups situation will likely be in flux through the end of the season, as NYC mayor Eric Adams recently revealed that the vaccine restrictions will be dropped in phases and the Brooklyn Nets were not apart of that first phase and it is still unknown how long it will take in between phases for them to decide to carry on to the next step of the plan.

However, not all is bleak for the Brooklyn Nets and their rapid race to the end of the season. Brooklyn’s remaining schedule is 25th ranked in toughness for the remainder of the season, so the team will have some opportunities to make up ground in the Eastern Conference standings. Also, Brooklyn is currently hovering around 15th for pace and 21st in defense, in which both should improve come playoffs as Ben Simmons will be a boost in both departments for the Nets.

As long as the Nets can get a handful of games towards the end of the regular season, they will be able to properly assess what is available for them come playoffs and can potentially still be on track to make a deep playoff push despite potential poor seeding. The only thing we can do is wait and see what happens as we rapidly approach the finish line.

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