After four members of the Brooklyn Nets—including Kevin Durant—tested positive for coronavirus, the team is healthy again.
In this hellscape of sports news that seemingly goes from bad to worse, we have some good news to report. The Brooklyn Nets are healthy after four players tested positive for coronavirus in March.
General manager Sean Marks informed reporters of this encouraging development on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
Nets GM Sean Marks is currently hosting a conference call with beat reporters to discuss the state of the team with respect to the COVID-19 outbreak.
"So far everybody is healthy. The guys who have tested positive have cleared their 14 days self-isolation & quarantine."
— Kristian Winfield #NFTAllStar (@Krisplashed) April 1, 2020
Although three of the Nets who tested positive were never identified, Kevin Durant went public with his positive diagnosis.
Sports are secondary at this point and making sure everyone is healthy should come first. With that said, the rest of the news delivered to reporters by Marks was less hopeful.
Returns for Durant and Irving?
With the NBA on hiatus, there’s growing speculation that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving could be healthy enough for a return to the court when the season resumes.
Although Brooklyn will likely be a seven seed in the playoffs, they’ll be much more dangerous with their two brightest stars in the lineup. The Toronto Raptors are the team’s likely opponent in a first-round series.
With that said, Marks threw cold water on the idea of KD and Kyrie returning for a playoff run in 2020. Having more time to recover is one thing, but neither player has access to the full scope of Brooklyn’s staff and facilities. the GM sees that as a potential setback in the grand scheme of things.
Sean Marks points to closing of Nets practice facilities when discussing coronavirus outbreak impact on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving injury return:
"You could take the other side of this which is that this hiatus has set their rehabilitation back."
— Kristian Winfield #NFTAllStar (@Krisplashed) April 1, 2020
Let’s try and pick apart this quote from the general manager because it’s hard to tell if this is the reality of the situation or Marks is just playing it coy.
There’s no guarantee that the 2020 playoffs even happen. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for Marks to even speculate about that possibility if he doesn’t have to do so.
Furthermore, Durant has stated repeatedly that he’s looking at the 2020-21 season for his Nets debut. He even reiterated that after the league went on hiatus.
Could Marks be right about the hiatus slowing down Durant and Irving’s rehabs? Sure.
But regardless, he wasn’t going to make any major announcements regarding the availability of Brooklyn’s two biggest stars—well, at least not yet.
Coaching Search
The Nets are in an awfully strange place when it comes to their coaching search. Kenny Atkinson and the team mutually agreed to part ways just days before the league went on hiatus. That leaves Brooklyn with interim head coach Jacque Vaughn and a lot of uncertainty.
On one hand, it’s not fair to Vaughn to conduct a head coaching search while he’s still the interim head coach (with a 2-0 record for what it’s worth). However, on the other hand, the Nets are on the clock and it seems unlikely at this stage that Vaughn will take over indefinitely.
Still, Marks seems pleased with how Vaughn is handling this unprecedented situation.
Nets GM Sean Marks on the team's coaching search: "No we are not reaching out to anyone right now. That would completely be not fair to our group."
Marks says he has been pleased with how Jacque Vaughn and his staff have been in contact with players during the pandemic.
— Kristian Winfield #NFTAllStar (@Krisplashed) April 1, 2020
“I think what I’m seeing so far from how our group — with Jacque and his assistants — how they’re working through this and how they’re reaching out to players and their collaborative approach within the organization has been great,” he said via the New York Daily News. “I think it’s extremely important that everybody has not only my support but the owner’s support and front office’s support during this time. That’s our priority.”
For Brooklyn, there are big questions ahead—coaching search, potential playoff roster, draft, etc. But the team is healthy, which is the most important thing during these trying times.
