Even being the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, The Brooklyn Nets will be without a number of key players once NBA restarts.
Quoting family health concerns, Wilson Chandler was the first member of the team to opt out, and shortly after Spencer Dinwiddie announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing symptoms.
Before another positive test on Tuesday, Dinwiddie had hoped to recover and play, he then later announced he would be sitting out. DeAndre Jordan likewise tested positive and announced he would not be going to Orlando with the team, and on Tuesday evening, we learned a third Nets player, Taurean Prince, has also tested positive and will not join the team for the restart, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Nets, already without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant for the season, are now down four other key contributors as they look to finish out the season. Given that when Dinwiddie announced his positive test he noted it came after he’d participated in activities with the team, one can’t help but wonder if the sudden spike in positive tests on the team are part of an internal outbreak — that, to be very clear, could have been caused by anyone that has since tested positive.
Prince averaged 12.1 points and 6.0 rebounds per game this season for the Nets, and with Chandler already opting out their options on the wing are growing slim. Should more tests come back positive from the team, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Nets may have to withdraw from the restart in whole, as FC Dallas did from the MLS Is Back Tournament in Orlando this week after 10 players and one coach tested positive or the virus.
