Brooklyn Nets: What if Kyrie Irving doesn’t return this season?

What if Kyrie Irving doesn’t return this season for the Brooklyn Nets? 

Simply put, the Brooklyn Nets haven’t looked anything like a championship contender this season. It’s only been a few games but the early returns on good for the Kyrie Irving-less Nets. Ideally, the Nets won’t be Kyrie-less for that much longer.

Though, it wasn’t encouraging to see that Nets owner Joe Tsai hadn’t spoken to Kyrie since the decision to not allow him to be a part-time player was made and that he doesn’t know if Kyrie will get vaccinated.

On the court, that isn’t exactly what you want to hear.

Without Kyrie to start the season, the Nets have been less than spectacular. The Nets are 3-3 through the first few games of the season and have struggled in nearly every outing. Specifically, James Harden is struggling with the rule changes and doesn’t seem like himself at this point in the year.

Kevin Durant is once again on pace for another sensational season but is getting little help beyond the inefficient contributions of Harden.

In short, they miss Kyrie.

Without their explosive offense, the Nets are just an average team with Durant. They still struggle on the defensive end and there’s no sign of improvement on that end of the floor. If something is going to improve for this team, it’s going to have to come on the offensive end and likely via the return of Kyrie.

I’m not sure if the Nets would simply hope Harden works himself back into shape. I’m not sure that’s a given at this point in his career, and with the NBA is hoping the game changes via the new rules.

But, what if Kyrie doesn’t return?

What if this is the version of the Nets that we’re going to see all year long? What if their title hopes rely on Harden getting back to form and this supporting cast rounding into shape? Would the Nets still be favored to come out of the Eastern Conference, or at least make a run to the conference finals?

The Nets have quickly become one of the biggest question marks in the Eastern Conference. That’s strange and unexpected because just a few weeks ago, many believed they were one of the sure things in the league.