Nets: 3 players who must produce more with Kevin Durant out
By Mike Luciano
The Brooklyn Nets need some secondary contributors to step up without Kevin Durant.
The Brooklyn Nets have hit the skids after a white-hot start, falling four times in five games against some substandard competition. Right when a superstar like Kevin Durant could calm everyone down and steady the ship, Brooklyn was informed that Durant will face a seven-day quarantine as part of the league’s coronavirus protocols, knocking him out of four games.
Kevin Durant's facing a 7-day quarantine under league protocols because of exposure to a positive COVID-19 case, sources tell ESPN. He had the coronavirus in May, continues to register antibodies and has tested negative in multiple recents tests. He'd miss 4 games in next week. https://t.co/HFHFKHolte
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 4, 2021
In what will undoubtedly be a pivotal stretch for Steve Nash and the Nets, these three secondary and tertiary studs need to lock in and strut their stuff on offense if Brooklyn is to keep their head above water in KD’s absence.
These three Nets need to flip the switch on offense to replace Kevin Durant.
3. Taurean Prince
Prince, who is in his second year with Brooklyn after a trade from the Atlanta Hawks, looks like the most obvious candidate to take over for Durant as the small-ball four in their starting lineup. While he was an efficient scorer in his days with Atlanta, he hasn’t been able to replicate that production on offense in Brooklyn, as his 11.5 points per game are offset by the fact he is shooting 37.5 percent from the floor and 34 percent from three.
As much as both Nash and Kenny Atkinson both like to go small on the offensive end, that’s made life hard for Prince, as a 6-7, 218-pound converted small forward unsurprisingly has had some trouble both outmuscling opposing bigs in the paint and causing them any sort of trouble on the defensive end.
Durant might not be a classic power forward, but a 6-10 player with his handles, shooting stroke, defensive skills, and high basketball IQ makes him an ideal candidate to serve as the nominal power forward in Nash’s offense. With both their interior defense and rebounding coming under fire in this poor stretch, Prince needs to show that he can be a part of the solution to Brooklyn’s woes at the moment.