On Sunday, Jan. 16, the Brooklyn Nets announced that an MRI revealed a sprained MCL in Kevin Durant’s left knee.
In line with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, “there’s optimism” inside the Nets group that there shall be a four-to-six-week timeline for Durant’s rehab and eventual return to motion.
MORE: Where does Durant rank among NBA’s best players?
It ought to go with out saying that the Nets shall be drastically impacted by the absence of Durant, who’s averaging a league-leading 29.3 factors to go together with 7.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists per recreation. Durant’s standing as among the finest gamers within the NBA means his absence shall be felt throughout the league.
Brooklyn is scheduled to play 17 video games forward of the All-Star Break, which Wojnarowski reports is a “sensible benchmark” for Durant’s return. With an MVP candidate set to overlook at the very least a month of motion, there could possibly be a league-wide ripple impact.
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The ripple impact of Kevin Durant’s absence
Brooklyn Nets
Let’s begin with the apparent.
Durant has been the main drive for Brooklyn this season, together with his scoring common at its highest since his MVP season of 2013-14. As such, KD has vaulted himself atop MVP conversations due to his influence on a nightly foundation.
After battling accidents throughout the 2020-21 season, Durant had missed simply six of the Nets’ first 42 video games earlier than taking place with a knee harm. Brooklyn is 3-3 in Durant’s absence.
To take a extra targeted look, the Nets have had a web score of 4.5 with Durant on the ground this season, whereas their web score with Durant off the ground is -0.9, according to NBA.com Stats. As a result of context issues, a big chunk of these numbers had been earlier than Kyrie Irving was permitted to re-join the Nets on a part-time foundation.
MORE: How Kyrie looked in his first game back
Within the three street video games since Irving’s return, Brooklyn’s web score in 31 non-Durant minutes is 10.6, barely higher than the web score of 8.9 within the 113 minutes that Durant has performed. The quantity is admittedly impacted by the Nets’ rout of the Bulls through which a variety of reserves stepped up.
That stated, it is essential to notice that 12 of the Nets’ subsequent 17 video games are on the street and Irving is eligible in all however one, a go to to the Knicks. With Irving and James Harden obtainable to play in about two-thirds of the video games in Durant’s absence, the 2 may have loads of alternatives to compensate.
Jap Convention Playoff image
On the time of Durant’s harm, the Nets trailed the Bulls by a half-game for first place within the East standings. Conversely, the Nets maintain only a two-game lead over the sixth-placed Cavaliers.
Ought to the Nets wrestle in Durant’s prolonged absence, the Jap Convention Playoff image may look vastly totally different with round 20 video games remaining within the common season.
With respect to Irving’s availability, the Nets may gain advantage from falling to fifth or sixth within the East, given they’d not have residence court docket benefit and Irving could be obtainable for 4 video games of a possible seven-game collection, slightly than three video games in a collection through which they had been the highest seed.
The tightly-contested race among the many East’s top-six groups will definitely be impacted by Durant’s absence. It is merely a matter of how a lot it is going to be impacted.
All-Star Sport
It isn’t as essential within the grand scheme of issues, however Durant seemed to be on his solution to turning into the East’s main vote-getter for a second consecutive 12 months.
Per the timeline supplied by Wojnarowski, Durant shouldn’t be anticipated to take part within the 2022 NBA All-Star Sport, however what if he receives extra votes than anybody else? Durant was in an analogous place final 12 months, as an harm precipitated him to overlook the 2021 NBA All-Star Sport because the main vote-getter.
MORE: Takeaways from second round of NBA All-Star voting returns
Durant served as a captain within the All-Star Draft however was changed within the beginning lineup by Celtics ahead Jayson Tatum and Pacers ahead Domantas Sabonis was added to the sport as an harm alternative.
Because of Durant’s harm, a participant like Sabonis, Hornets ahead Miles Bridges or Raptors ahead Pascal Siakam may obtain All-Star consideration as an harm alternative, which might be fairly the dignity for every of the aforementioned gamers.
The MVP race
In TSN’s most recent MVP ladder, Durant got here in at second behind two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
With Durant’s latest harm, he may have totaled at the very least 20 absences by the season’s finish, which can seemingly rule him out of MVP consideration. Because of this, MVP candidates equivalent to Bulls ahead DeMar DeRozan, Nuggets heart Nikola Jokic and 76ers heart Joel Embiid will transfer up in MVP talks.
The race will not be as enjoyable with out KD, but it surely ought to nonetheless be simply as intriguing with potential first-timers in DeRozan and Embiid in addition to a possible back-to-back award winner in Jokic.
