Nets have to take advantage of their upcoming stretch of games against (mostly) bad teams

The Nets take on their recent trade partner, the 8-12 Boston Celtics led by Brad Stevens (above), next Tuesday in the midst of an easier portion of the schedule for Brooklyn.

Let's face it: the Brooklyn Nets are a trainwreck at the moment. They are eight games under .500, lost by 24 at home to the Nuggets yesterday, have four key players injured for an indefinite amount of time, and recently had their head coach demote an assistant coach, whom said head coach played under for seven seasons.

However, there is a silver lining. The season is young and the Nets are entering a relatively easy part of their schedule, in which they are playing six of their next eight games against teams currently under .500, and one against a team that is right at .500 (the Wizards).

Brooklyn has the Knicks tomorrow night at Barclays, followed by games against the NBA-worst Bucks and Celtics. Then they take on the Clippers, in their one game in the stretch versus a good, above-.500 one. Meetings with the Pistons, 76ers (2), and Wizards follow. Out of those eight, there is no reason the Nets shouldn't be able to win five at the least, but less than six would still be a little disappointing.

If they are going to end up being halfway decent this year, the Nets first have to get back to .500. In order to do that, they must string some wins together, and this upcoming stretch of games against weaker opponents is the perfect opportunity to do that. If they don't advantage of this golden chance to gain some ground in the standings, then making the playoffs won't be nearly the certainty it was expected to be before this season began.

I know a bunch of guys on this team are injured for awhile–D-Will, AK, Paul, and Jet Terry–but the remaining guys still healthy–Brook, Joe, KG, Mirza, Livingston, Blatche, Plumlee, Alan Anderson, etc–should be enough to beat most, if not all, of these inferior opponents.

If they aren't able to, though, then the current hole the Nets are trying to dig themselves out of will only get wider and deeper. If it does, then their poor start to the season will turn into a disappointing full season, and may cost a playoff spot for a team predicted to be a possible Finals contender in the preseason, which would probably be the death knell for Jason Kidd's head-coaching career.