Nets: 3 players who must produce more with Kevin Durant out

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.

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.

2. Caris LeVert

As enticing as a James Harden trade sounded, one of the reasons Sean Marks and the Nets were hesitant to pull the trigger on a deal was the evolution of LeVert, who averaged 18.7 points per game last season, serving as the No. 3 scoring option behind Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie. With Durant quarantining and Dinwiddie out for the year with his ACL injury, LeVert now has to step up from his role as the fourth scoring option on this team to the secondary one. This couldn’t have come at a worse time, as he is averaging just 13.1 points per game this year while shooting 37 percent.

While Irving wasn’t on the floor constantly in Brooklyn last year, he and LeVert seemed to have symmetry together. In fact, LeVert even managed to take over games when Irving was sidelined, epitomized by his 51-point virtuoso performance against the Boston Celtics just before the shutdown. Irving will obviously be the focal point of the offense, but it will be up to LeVert to up his game and score in the 20s consistently as long as Durant is unable to rejoin the team.

With Brooklyn’s much-hyped depth now shriveling up before our eyes due to injuries and the unfortunate reality of a pandemic-influenced season, LeVert needs to step into this featured role and help the Nets get back on track. If he fails, their refusal to trade for Harden might start to resurface and be questioned.

1. Kyrie Irving

Kyrie hasn’t been a simple passenger on Durant’s comeback tour. In fact, when the Nets need a bucket, it’s been Irving who has grabbed the bull by the horns, often dominating the ball for long stretches and using his trademark mesmerizing handles to get to the rim, all the while showing off a much-improved three-point shot. Irving, who had a brief test run as the featured offensive talent last season, showed that he can still put up career-best numbers, but his ability to lead his team to victories when he is the straw stirring the drink has been a question surrounding him as far back as the pre-LeBron days in Cleveland.

Irving was averaging 26.8 points and 6.3 assists per game with Durant in the lineup, and those numbers will likely increase as long as Durant is away from the team. We know that Irving will put the ball in the basket, the question will be if he can navigate a challenging part of their schedule without No. 7 next to him on the wing.

All Kyrie has to do is lock in while playing an efficient, turnover-free style of basketball that sacrifices trying to do too much in the name of teamwork, and the Nets should be able to escape their KD-less week without too much damage. If he fails to accomplish this goal, Brooklyn will need to worry about overcoming their sub-.500 record before thinking about a championship.

Nets have two huge problems they need to fix ASAP

With Steve Nash and Jacque Vaughn's defense has been getting ripped apart in the last few games, the Nets have some serious issues they need to address.