Some expectations are almost always irrelevant, like the kind that cast the Nets’ season as an inevitable disaster void of any hope before it began. Some expectations become irrelevant, like Kenny Atkinson’s plans for a healthy team in the first month of his first season as a head coach.
Six games into the season, the team’s injury-filled backcourt has already caused Atkinson to use rotations and lineups that he could never have envisioned employing so early — if at all — yet the Nets have picked up two wins over potential playoff teams, also leaving the outcome of three other games in doubt until the final minute.