Opening night is quickly approaching for the Brooklyn Nets. With only a week until the games start to count for real, teams will usually have a good idea of what their rotation will be, or at least who will be in the starting lineup. That is not the case for the Nets currently with the ongoing Kyrie Irving situation.
Brooklyn is dealing with a unique situation involving presumed starting point guard, Kyrie Irving. New York put mandates in place that anyone partaking in an indoor event in the city needs to have received the COVID-19 vaccine. As of this writing, Irving has not received his.
As a result, he is deemed ineligible to play in games at the Barclays Center. That means he will miss at least 41 regular-season games, possibly 43 depending on how things work as a visitor to Madison Square Garden to play the New York Knicks. Visiting players receive exemptions, but since it is still within the city, Irving may not be allowed to play in those games either.
It is an unprecedented situation, as Irving will also be forfeiting nearly $15 million in salary if he remains unvaccinated for the duration of the season. This complicates things for the organization.
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Kevin Durant, James Harden, Joe Tsai, and Sean Marks are going to be part of the group discussing what the plan with Irving should be. Could he become the team’s sixth man for this upcoming season? It is something head coach Steve Nash has said is a possibility.
“It’s possible, yeah. We’ll see. We haven’t really got there yet. We’re still trying to process all of the possibilities. That might take us some time to see where his body’s at. No one’s ever done that before,” said Nash. “I wouldn’t know what precedents there are, and what’s the best way to do it. We’re really trying to navigate it as we go.”
Sunday, October 24th is when the Nets will play their first home game of the season. That could be the first game of many that Irving misses, as Nash has admitted that the team will be without Irving for multiple games this season.
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Irving has been sidelined plenty throughout his career, but those were absences the team did not see coming. Knowing that he will miss specific games throughout the season, the Brooklyn Nets will be better prepared for it this time around and can put together a plan that will help the team win some games.
Making IKyrie rving the sixth man would be a solid plan as the team’s starting five could build cohesion and chemistry throughout the season. Overcoming the loss of a sixth man is easier to compensate for than a starting player.
