The Nets aren't the only team in the NBA that's been banged up or missing several key guys. But they're the only ones who haven't won.
Their opponent tomorrow, the Magic, hasn't had All-Star Rashard Lewis due to league suspension. Vince Carter has missed four-and-a-half games after spraining his ankle against the Nets, and Ryan Anderson has sat three games with an ankle injury.
Those are two starters, two of the top three options and a key contributor off the bench when everyone is healthy. But the Magic still have enough to win with, especially since Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson have been healthy. Not surprisingly, they're 6-3.
Even if the Nets were at full strength, they probably would struggle. They could have eight players again tomorrow. Chris Douglas-Roberts returned today from swine flu and Courtney Lee tested his strained left groin. Though Douglas-Roberts was weak, he finished his workout, but Lee felt discomfort in his groin.
Both are questionable. The Nets will welcome those guys back, but you wonder what their bodies will allow them to do.
The amazing thing is that these Nets are so close to being 4-4. Of course, they're not, but could have beaten the Wolves, Bobcats and Sixers twice. Maybe they win a few of those games if they're healthy. Maybe not.
There is no consolation, though. Not even the hope that, when the players come back, the Nets will reel off a string of victories. More will be expected, particularly when Devin Harris, their lone All-Star, returns and when their starting five is intact, which it has been just twice thus far. But they still could struggle unless they play with the defensive tenacity, aggressiveness and togetherness this group has.
"Look, regardless of who we have, it's not like coming back we have [Wilt] Chamberlain," coach Lawrence Frank said. "Not to make light of the dead, but my point is we need to be the hardest working team.
"These guys, I think, have embraced how we have to play, and when guys come back it's no different. It's not all of a sudden now you're coming back and you have more talent than the rest of the league. No, we knew coming into the season it was an uphill battle, that's why we understood how hard we have to play to give ourselves a chance."
That's the big difference between this season and the 2004-05 season, when the Nets had assembled a team of players who would be out of the league in the not so distant future.
They were bad, 2-11 bad, and seven of the 11 losses were by double-digits. But Jason Kidd was the one on the injured list.
With all due respect to Harris, Yi Jianlian, Jarvis Hayes, Keyon Dooling and Tony Battie, you have something to look forward to when it's Jason Kidd coming back, especially when you have Richard Jefferson playing the best ball of his career at the time.
There was as much anxiety as anticipation when Kidd returned. He was unhappy with all the moves the Nets made the summer before, starting with the Kenyon Martin trade, and he and Alonzo Mourning let it be known that they weren't happy and didn't want to be here.
Mourning ultimately was traded in the deal that brought Carter. Eventually Kidd was happy, but it took Carter playing near-MVP ball for that to happen.
The Nets don't nearly have the amount of players who will be out of the league as they did five years ago. They have guys they're hoping to build with in Brook Lopez, Harris, Lee, Terrence Williams and Yi. But they also don't have a Kidd coming back and can't count on acquiring a Carter-type player in a trade in the coming weeks or months.
When their key players come back, the struggles may not end. They may just be different. But there should be no anxiety like in 2004-05, only anticipation.
Some players will be unhappy when their minutes are cut, and the losing will breed frustration. But the Nets are a team of young guys still making their way in this league and veterans proving they can still play and worthy of their next contract.
But the Nets need their young guys together, playing together and improving together. It won't save the season, but could help the future. No anxiety; just anticipation.
Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)
