One Brooklyn Nets player thinks that health was the only thing standing between them and the Larry O’Brien Trophy this past season.
Nets guard Bruce Brown told reporters on Monday that he thinks the team would have won the championship if not for their injuries.
“I think we all know what would’ve happened last year if we were healthy,” said Brown, per Adam Zagoria of NJ.com.
The Nets were indeed badly hobbled by injuries during their second-round playoff series against the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks. Kyrie Irving missed the last three games due to an ankle injury, and James Harden struggled to play through a hamstring issue. Even so, Brooklyn took the series to seven games and narrowly lost the final contest in overtime.
Still, it is difficult to play the what-if game as teams suffer bad injury luck every single postseason. The Los Angeles Clippers (Kawhi Leonard), the Atlanta Hawks (Trae Young), and the Los Angeles Lakers (Anthony Davis) could all make similar arguments about how they would have fared at full strength in the 2021 playoffs.
On the Nets’ end, Kevin Durant just signed a big extension with the team. They also made a couple of strong additions to their bench by signing Patty Mills and James Johnson. That means that the Nets will get another chance next season to prove that they are the team Brown claims they are.
