Nets: 3 things we’ve learned about Brooklyn in bubble

2. The Bench is Underrated

Brooklyn is pretty much throwing its bench into the starting five each game and, aside from the humiliating defeat against Boston, they’ve been extremely competitive. The Nets’ performance since play resumed has proven that the second-stringers are grossly underrated and deserve more of a chance moving forward.

As crazy as it sounds, there’s been no shortage of players that who have stepped up, most of whom wouldn’t have sniffed playing time if the starters had been healthy.

Substitute signing Tyler Johnson is playing like he deserves a shot next season. Garrett Temple has chipped in with some big games, and the same can surprisingly be said for Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, who has two 20-point games under his belt, as well as Rodions Kurucs. Even undrafted talents like Jeremiah Martin and Donta Hall have offered valuable minutes off the bench.

We’re obviously not advocating for Brooklyn to empty its bench every game next season, but there’s no doubting the coaching staff will have a slew of players to choose from when the team is in need of a spark. That simply wasn’t the case prior to the restart.