Brooklyn Nets Must Stay Competitive as Season Winds Down

There’s no luxury in tanking, so the Brooklyn Nets have no choice but to fight through the rest of the season.

Unlike the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, the Brooklyn Nets can’t intentionally lose games with the hope of landing at the top of this year’s draft order. Even though they have the NBA’s worst record, Brooklyn’s selections aren’t affected by where they end the season. If that were a choice, though, I wouldn’t like seeing them tank.

That’s just me, and the only reason I think that is because there’s no guarantee of landing the first, second or third pick. Also, and probably the biggest reason, who wants to see their team get in the habit of losing?

With draft position out of the equation, Kenny Atkinson is free to continue coaching as he was, but something’s been way different lately. The Nets are — drumroll, please — actually winning games. No, this is not fake news. After walloping the Suns last Thursday 126-98, Brooklyn notched their first winning streak of the season, and as of last Friday, the Nets had more wins in March than the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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They’ve fought hard and executed flawlessly over the last month, and those are the combinations to winning basketball. It’s important to keep those habits in place because they have such a brutally young roster, and the collective age isn’t going to get much older in just one summer. On top of that, most of the young guys are logging a ton of minutes and are going to be in the rotation for the foreseeable future.

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Isaiah Whitehead, Caris LeVert and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, among others, need confidence heading into the summer. Instilling the belief that they can succeed isn’t going to happen by throwing games. The coaching staff just needs to conduct business as usual and possibly give the young guys bigger roles to see how they handle having to produce for a majority of the game.

Of the final nine games, most of the teams are better than the Brooklyn Nets. They have some winnable games against the Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers, but for the most part, playoff-bound opponents await.

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Boston, Washington and Atlanta aren’t going to let up just because their postseason fate is decided — it’d be silly. The seeding is excruciatingly close in the East, and if the Nets take on these teams that are playing at an above-average level, staying in the game and having the young guys play well is invaluable.