Brooklyn Nets: 3 Things fans want, but won’t get next year
Kevin Durant Returns
Although I wholeheartedly expect Kevin Durant to make a full recovery and dawn his “slim reaper” alter ego once more, it won’t happen until the 2020-2021 season. As every other scenario involving a torn Achilles tendon insinuated a 1-year absence from the game, look for Brooklyn to follow this popular model and refrain from risking Durant’s longterm health by giving him the entire season off.
https://twitter.com/ChrisLavinio/status/1155974205034209283?s=20
After inking a massive 4–year, $164 million dollar contract with the 2x NBA Finals MVP, the Nets snapped shut an expensive locket, cementing a tight chain around themselves and Durant for the foreseeable future. With evidence that supports the “playing it safe” approach certainly present within Chauncey Billups, Patrick Ewing, Kobe Bryant, and most recently, DeMarcus Cousins’s career history books, there’s no reason for Brooklyn to take things in another direction with so much on the line.
If the Nets offered Durant his “comeback” role too early, such as any time next season, he’d undergo even greater risk to re-injury his Achilles. Further health complications would not only damage Durant’s career, but also Brooklyn’s future due to their financial obligations to him. This concept only highlights the negativity surrounding the risk/reward ratio regarding a Durant return next year.
Kevin Durant, recovering from a ruptured Achilles, is expected to miss all of next season. When he plays his next NBA game he’ll be 32. Still say it’s a risk...for Warriors, Knicks, Nets and Clippers. Big money, lot of waiting and lots of hoping.
— Frank Isola (@TheFrankIsola) June 30, 2019
Although we undoubtedly look forward to Durant’s first three–point splash or emphatic slam dunk while wearing Brooklyn’s colors with unspeakable anticipation, the clock counting it all down still annoyingly hovers above, likely to test our patience for an extensive period.