Two weeks ago, Kenny Atkinson laid out a plan for the next steps of Kyrie Irving’s rehab process:
The plan is to continue to ramp up his individual on-court work and from there, it’s starting to integrate him in the next week or two into team practices. Like I always say, that could be a planned practice or us making one up if the game schedule so dictates.
Since then Irving has done some shooting, and there’s been no report of regression or setback from Atkinson or the team. But still no contact for Brooklyn’s star point guard.
Prior to Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks, Atkinson gave a status update on Irving. The point guard has yet to be cleared for contact practices, per Malika Andrews of ESPN.
With Irving and Caris LeVert (right thumb surgery) still out, along with Kevin Durant (right Achilles surgery) and David Nwaba (right Achilles surgery), the Nets can apply for a hardship exception as early as December 28. This could lead to the return of Iman Shumpert — on a temporary basis, once again.