Brooklyn Nets: It’s not a crazy idea for Kevin Durant to return if season resumes

Kevin Durant could return to the Brooklyn Nets if season returns

As optimism continues to grow around the NBA resuming the 2019-20 season – which is now being targeted for a July 31 restart – there is a clear reason for excitement. For the Brooklyn Nets, you can multiply that tenfold considering there’s at least a chance that we could see a very different version of them when they take the floor again.

That’s because there’s a Kevin Durant-sized decision that they need to make. Simply put, will Durant be on the team’s active roster when the NBA returns in August?

While there are a number of different factors in play here, there are encouraging signs that suggest Durant could be healthy enough to play if called upon.

Should Kevin Durant play?

There are two questions that are at play. The first is revolves around Durant being healthy enough to play. It’s been more than two months since the video surface of Durant flying by defenders for a one-handed dunk in a 4-on-4 practice found its way to Twitter. Who knows how healthy Durant was at the time of this video, but an important note that should be made is that the target date for a return to action for the NBA is July 31.

That’s more than four months after this video (if this footage was in fact from early-March) was released.

Overall, based on a July 31 restart date, that means Durant would have had 414 days (that equates to roughly 14 months) of recovery since the injury. Taking recent history taken into account for players recovering from Achilles injuries, his window for returning should fall into the NBA’s restart date.

In fact, many recent players returned from a similar injury before Durant’s current recovery time.

There is reason to believe that Durant will be healthy enough to play by the time the NBA is ready to restart. Of course, that might not even be the most important question at play over the next few weeks for the Nets and Durant.

The second – bigger and most important – question centers around whether Durant should play when the season returns. The problem is that this is an extremely loaded question that takes into account where the Nets are as a team, their realistic prospects for the playoffs, and whether or not Durant would actually be comfortable with it.

First, even if the Nets make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference when the season returns – whether that’s via a play-in tournament or simply picking up where the season left off – they’ll likely be a bottom two seed in any bracket.

That means they’ll likely play either the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors in the first round. If the NBA would reseed 1-16, the Nets would likely have to play either the Los Angeles Lakers or Bucks.

Would Durant, management, and the coaching staff believe that the team would have a chance to pull off an upset with a healthy roster that would still essentially be learning how to play with each other?

On the surface, you’d have to believe that the Nets – with a healthy Kyrie Irving and Durant – would have a shot against any team in the NBA in a seven-game series. One important detail is that the Nets would essentially be playing together as a team for the first time. That would, no question, put them at a disadvantage against any of the elite-level teams they’d play.

The risk might not equal the reward for the team. Then again, assuming Durant wouldn’t be putting himself in danger of reinjury, what would the team have to lose from a competitive standpoint?

The Nets would likely lose in the first round without Durant in the lineup anyways.

As we inch closer to a possible resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season, there will be more and more talk about Kevin Durant’s possible return. A couple of months ago, when the hiatus was first implemented perhaps it was a foolish idea. Although, I’m not sure many expected the hiatus to last more than four months.

Nevertheless, here we are. And the idea of Kevin Durant returning is no longer wishful thinking. It’s actually a plausible scenario. That’s great news for both the Brooklyn Nets and NBA.