It has been unanimously reported that Brooklyn Nets star Point Guard Kyrie Irving will have to wait out the 2019-20 offseason alongside new teammate Kevin Durant, for the former Cavaliers and Celtics standout will be sidelined for the rest of the season after deciding to undergo arthroscopic shoulder surgery that’ll likely keep him out of all basketball activities for the rest of the season. This news comes less than a year removed from him signing a four-year, $136.5 million contract with Brooklyn.
Irving, 27, is no stranger to the parks of missed time in a Nets uniform. What legacy started out as a minuscule shoulder “impingement” has kept the former All-Star MVP and one-time champ out of commission for over 26 games, and this procedure will keep him on the shelf for an undisclosed amount of time.
“That’s about all I can tell you,” Nets Head Coach Kenny Atkinson exclaimed. “His shoulder continues to bother him. That’s about the extent of it now.”
Though not a result of one particular play, but rather Irving’s shoulder muscle accumulating more damage over time probably caused the superstar guard to seek second and third opinions on his ailment, as Atkinson explains.
“The shoulder is a tough thing,” Atkinson said. “I just don’t think it was an on and off thing where it’s bothering you. Some days you feel good, some days you don’t feel good. But I think it got to the point it was, ‘Hey, let’s see another specialist.”
Upon recency, however, this Nets team has managed to scrape out a 4-1 record in the games that Irving has been out of since February 1, and as a whole have gone 17-16 in the games that Irving didn’t suit up for. And the ironic fact? Brooklyn’s record with Irving on the court peaked at a mediocre 8-12.
Picking up a majority of the two-time All-NBA member’s slack has been the consistently hot performance of both guards Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert, who were handed the responsibility of compensating the Nets with Irving’s scoring output of 27.4 points per game off 47 percent shooting. A tall task, indeed, but nothing the homegrown talents in Levert and free-agent Dinwiddie acquired back in 2017 haven’t handled yet.
As a backcourt duo, they’ve averaged a little over 36 points in the 28 games they’ve played together, and with some venerable contributions from a litany of other guards in Atkinson’s rotation like Garrett Temple (10.2 ppg., 32.6 3PT%), they’ve fared to the best of their ability, clawing away some key wins over top-tier teams in the Sixers and Celtics without Irving on the active roster this year.
And yes, the Nets are a playoff-bound team if they can keep things together when crossing the proverbial finish line of the 82-game marathon that is the regular season. And the silver lining, though it’s effect temporary, justifying considering how hard Brooklyn plays on defense and how aggressive they can be on offense without their lone all-star on the floor.
But looking past that, the way that this roster is pieced together right now can all but heighten the mood for Nets fans who are now acquiesced into undertaking the grand scheme of things in Brooklyn as Gospel, simply because it’s unclear whether both Irving and Durant’s extended absence from their lingering injuries could provide further doubt for future seasons as the Eastern Conference, and the rest of the league for that matter, grows stronger as the years go by.
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