Brooklyn Nets: Next 8 games will be telling how season will go

After a grueling road back-to-back, the Brooklyn Nets will receive a much-needed 3 days off until they face the New Orleans Pelicans at home on Wednesday.

The next eight games will be very telling in how the Brooklyn Nets season will ultimately unfold. We’re already 38 games into the season, almost halfway through (can you believe it?!), and by the end of the next eight-game stretch the Nets will be through more than half the year.

Over exactly the next two weeks, the Nets will play five of their eight games on the road in very tough places. Games on the road include stops in Memphis, Boston, Toronto and Houston.

Three of the aforementioned teams will more than likely be competing for an NBA championship at the end of the season and are clearly atop of the list of elite NBA teams.

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Other than New Orleans on Wednesday night, the Nets will face the Hawks and the Celtics at home as well. New Orleans will certainly test the rested Nets and the Celtics will be looking to improve their record after their up-and-down start to their season.

Playoff-caliber teams, the type that the Nets are striving to be, compete on the road against the very best the NBA has to offer and they’re able to win their games at home against opponents worse and slightly better than them.

The Nets have to be able to win the games they’re supposed to win, as well as sneak out a couple of wins against some of these top-tier teams, if they want to convince management to be buyers at the NBA trade deadline.

The trade deadline (Feb. 7) is rapidly approaching as it’s just over a month away and the Nets certainly look like they’re striving for that sixth to eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Ending this eight-game stretch with a record of 5-3, or even 4-4, would be a huge success for a team attempting to stay afloat in a putrid but tight Eastern Conference.

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Playoff basketball hasn’t been around in Brooklyn since the 2014-15 season and its return would be a terrific treat for Nets fans. It also would be appealing to some free agents that the Nets are certainly trying to attract to Brooklyn this offseason.