Kevin Durant will need to be quarantined for seven days after the NBA’s contact tracking initiative reveals that he was exposed to COVID-19, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Durant already had COVID-19 at the start of the outbreak. He tested negative and still has antibodies according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, but league rules make no distinction between players who have had COVID and those who have not.
The Nets, 3-4 and already without Spencer Dinwiddie due to a torn ACL, will play four games over the next seven days, hosting the Utah Jazz and the Philadelphia 76ers before making a road trip to Memphis and coming home for a date with Oklahoma City Thunder. He would then be eligible to return on December 12 against the Denver Nuggets. Durant’s absence will only push them further down the Eastern Conference standings.
Without Durant, the Nets will have to rely even more on Kyrie Irving and Caris LeVert to create kicks for the rest of the team. Fortunately, the Nets should expect some positive shooting regression to boost them. They are currently in 25th place in the NBA, with 34.3% of 3 point shots, which is unlikely to last due to their talent.
Durant would always lose games this season. It was an inevitability due to his health after an Achilles tendon rupture, and the Nets had already planned to rest him during consecutive maneuvers. But this four-game period without it will be brutal for a Nets team that is still finding its way. Durant will return at full strength in a week, but now is the time when the Nets are not recovering as they try to join a champion team.