Kyrie Irving and Caris LeVert are slowly, but surely making their way back from injury, but the Brooklyn Nets say there’s no contact yet.
The Brooklyn Nets are taking things slow with Kyrie Irving (right shoulder) and Caris LeVert (thumb surgery). Head coach Kenny Atkinson says the two are making progress, but neither have begun contact drills yet.
“He did on-court work today with no contact,” Atkinson said of Irving after Friday’s practice per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “Still not cleared for that. No timetable on when that’s going to happen. I will say the on-court, non-contact stuff has been ramped up.”
Irving’s been out since Nov. 14 and his right shoulder impingement kept him out longer than anyone expected. There is still no timetable for Irving, but the fact that he is doing on-court work seems like a positive sign.
“Caris did non-contact stuff today,” Atkinson would later go on to say. “But he’s starting to, definitely starting to get some traction.”
By comparison, LeVert has been out since Nov. 11 after undergoing surgery on his thumb. The Nets are 9-6 without LeVert and 9-4 without Irving, which says much more about Brooklyn’s soft schedule than anything else.
Spencer Dinwiddie has stepped up in the absence of LeVert and Irving. As Brooklyn’s best creator, he’s taken control of the starting unit and is playing at an All-Star level. Dinwiddie is averaging 20.8 points and 6.2 assists per game, but those numbers jump to 23.8 points and 7.5 assists over his last 13 games.
Brooklyn faces a tough back-to-back over the weekend with a road matchup against the Toronto Raptors (7:30 p.m. ET) and a home game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday (6 p.m. ET).
