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| New Net Andrei Kirilenko (center) is expected to be an important bench presence for Brooklyn this season, but may miss Wednesday's opener with back spasms |
The NBA's 2013-14 regular season officially begins tomorrow night, headlined by a TNT doubleheader featuring the Bulls-Heat (Derrick Rose's official return to the Bulls) and the Clippers-Lakers in a cross-LA matchup. Two high-profile games on just the first night of the new campaign. About as good as any NBA season can start.
The Brooklyn Nets open up their slate of games on Wednesday, playing the young and talented Cleveland Cavaliers at the Q.
Cleveland–with Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Tristan Thompson, Andrew Bynum, 1st-overall pick Anthony Bennett, and even Dion Waiters–is loaded with high lottery pick and established (albeit extremely injury-prone) big men. Looking at their record from last year, the Cavaliers don't look very formidable, but Mike Brown's team is certainly primed for a big year meaning that the Nets are far from guaranteed to win their opener, regardless of their revamped roster.
As mentioned above, free agent signee Andrei Kirilenko–who signed with Brooklyn over the summer after playing with the Timberwolves last season–might not play vs the Cavaliers with a balky back, but is likely to join the Nets on Friday for their home opener vs the Heat. Every other Net is expected to play the day after tomorrow, which is great news for Brooklyn's attempt to start the year off strong, even if head coach Jason Kidd (DUI suspension) won't be at the Cleveland game.
However, Kirilenko's injury–even though it's not very serious–encapsulates this entire Nets team and why it make not be as good as everyone imagines it will be.
On paper and via talent alone, the Brooklyn Nets probably should be penciled in as the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference with a legitimate chance to unseat the two-time defending champion Miami Heat as the East's annual representative in the NBA Finals. Too bad basketball isn't played on paper.
With his myriad of summer transactions, Nets GM Billy King made his team one of the most interesting in league history with hordes of All-Star Games and playoff contests of experience among its players. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry have all won the championship at least once in their careers but are all on the wrong side of 35 years old. Kirilenko hasn't won his own title, but is also not a rookie anymore at 32 and doesn't have the youthful ability to resist injuries as he used to.
Those four guys, crucial pieces to the Nets puzzle, aren't on their way out of the league just yet, but aren't young anymore and don't have the same hop in their step. With age comes injury risk, especially in the NBA, and with injury risk comes scheduled rest games. Even if injuries and the many nicks and bruises of a NBA season don't make these players miss significant games, the amount of time they'll have to rest due to their aging physiques will certainly get to them and affect how the Nets play as a team overall.
There is no doubt that, when healthy, Brooklyn can compete closely with any team in the NBA, regardless of whether its the Heat or the Thunder. The only problem is that health is no guarantee with this team and it's something which could make or break the 2013-14 for Jason Kidd's team.
It would be silly to assume immediate and lasting greatness and success from this group of players even before it's played a game that counts. it would be even more naive to think that it's going to be playing at full strength for the 82+ games of the season and the playoffs.
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