CLEVELAND -- The Brooklyn Nets can shop their stars and try to retool on the fly. They can lose nearly every game they play against opponents with records of .500 or better. They can experiment with lineups and rotations. And they can take all the time in the world trying to get acclimated to new coach Lionel Hollins' system. Because given the state of the Eastern Conference at this juncture, the Nets will make the playoffs. It's almost as if they’d have to try to miss them.
The Boston Celtics just traded Rajon Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks. Jason Kidd's Milwaukee Bucks just lost Jabari Parker for the season. Paul George, due to that devastating injury he suffered before the FIBA Basketball World Cup, isn’t coming back to save the Indiana Pacers. The Charlotte Hornets are shopping Lance Stephenson. Stan Van Gundy's Detroit Pistons are a mess. Carmelo Anthony has been advised to shut it down for a few weeks. Meanwhile, New York Knicks president Phil Jackson, who signed Anthony to a max contract over the summer, has taken to Twitter to defend the Tyson Chandler trade. And the Philadelphia 76ers are tanking.
The Orlando Magic, who are in rebuilding mode but feature a few promising young players (Tobias Harris, Nikola Vucevic, Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon), might end up making the playoffs by accident.
“It does [give us comfort], but at the same time we wanna be better than that,” Deron Williams said of the Nets (10-14), who have lost two straight but enter Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the eighth and final playoff spot.
“We don’t just wanna be content with just hanging around the No. 8 seed because the East is the way it is. We wanna improve as a team. We wanna get better. We wanna start playing better.”
Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Williams on the trading block? Big deal. A 1-12 record against good teams? Whatever. Playing big? Playing small? Doesn’t matter. Injuries causing them to put out a different starting lineup every game? It is what it is. An inevitable swap of first-round picks in 2015 with the Atlanta Hawks as a result of the Johnson deal? Oh well.
Perhaps the Nets can take solace in all of this. Perhaps they can embrace the fact that as long as they beat the teams they’re supposed to beat, they’ll be fine. Maybe the Nets don’t even have to turn it around this season. Because given the state of the Eastern Conference, who they are now is probably already good enough to get into the dance in 2014-15.
“There’s a lot of teams in our division that are in the same boat as we are, trying to find their way,” Hollins said. There’s 3-4 good teams [in the East] -- teams that have been consistently on their game -- and then the rest of us are in the same pod, play 3-4 games pretty good, and then play 3-4 games pretty bad, just treading water.”