As much as 2020-21 is supposed to be the start of something bigger for the Brooklyn Nets with the return of Kevin Durant upcoming, it was important for this group to play together as much as possible in 2019-20.
Kyrie Irving, Garrett Temple, Taurean Prince and Wilson Chandler are all new this year — as is Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who earned his spot midway through the season. While Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie and other players who returned from the 2018-19 Nets have played plenty with Temple, Prince, Chandler and Luwawu-Cabarrot, their opportunities with Irving have been limited.
Now that Irving has been ruled out for the year, things not only get tougher for the players, things also didn’t any easier for Kenny Atkinson.
You wanted some time to work things out, work on our continuity and obviously work on the chemistry of the team and how we’re going to use him. That’s the disappointing part. We’re not going to have that opportunity. We’ll have to start fresh next season and figure it out quickly. But that is the disappointing part.
Atkinson added:
I don’t know if there’s enough, especially when you throw Kevin into the mix. I think it’s going to be a different structure, a different chemistry, different rotations.
Marks now has similar question marks ahead of him as he looks to reassess the roster after what’s been “kind of a roller-coaster year”:
When you don’t have a massive sample size, that’s going to make things difficult.
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Quotes provided by Ky Carlin of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group.