Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Brooklyn Nets have room to be optimistic after building momentum with reinforcements on the horizon. Hell, it’s really been the story of the season up to this point. Brooklyn struggles at full health with rotation complications and lack of intensity, pick up the pace once it’s undermanned… rinse and repeat.
It wasn’t long ago that the Nets were 16-13 with a week until the Christmas holiday with the excitement of Caris LeVert and Kyrie Irving returning to help the effort. All those semblances of hope and jubilee—expectations of climbing up the ladder of the NBA’s hierarchy—were met with the cruel reality of a 4-12 record in their next 16 games.