The Brooklyn Nets are set to enter a new era this season after dealing James Harden to Philadelphia in exchange for Ben Simmons ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. Simmons is ramping up to return to the court at the best level, while Kyrie Irving could become a full-time player in the next couple of weeks.
All these returns could make the Nets legit title contenders, but not everybody believes they are on the right track to win it all this season. Former player-turned-analyst Kendrick Perkins recently warned the Brooklynites about missing the playoffs, which could happen if they ran into a young and hungry team in the play-in tournament.
Right now, the Nets rank 8th in the Eastern Conference standings, which would make them play in the first play-in game against the 7th seed. They need to avoid that at any cost, and it seems like they will do it without any problems. However, the opposite could happen and the Nets could play in the new tournament, where some teams could surprise them.
“I’ll tell you what, the Brooklyn Nets are walking a fine line because if they get into the play-in tournament and they have to face a young team like the Atlanta Hawks or the Charlotte Hornets, it could go either way and they could possibly not make the playoffs.”
He also talked about Ben Simmons’ fitness and how his lack of rhythm could affect the team’s chances of making the postseason.
“We don’t know what type of shape Ben Simmons is going to be in. We haven’t seen Ben Simmons play in over seven months. He hasn’t touched a basketball court and played a full game in seven months and they have less than 30 games to get it together.”
This is an interesting point of view from Kendrick, and the Nets surely thought about this before pulling the trigger in the Simmons-Harden trade. They’ll need to be fast to acclimate Simmons and make him the player he was before sitting out for the first part of the season. Time will tell if the Nets can be a dangerous team with Simmons, Kyrie, and Kevin Durant, but they should be careful with this situation.
