Report: Durant won't make Nets debut in 2019-20
Even with a tentative timeline to resume the 2019-20 NBA season at Walt Disney World in late July, Kevin Durant still won't make his Brooklyn Nets debut this season, sources told NetsDaily's Anthony Puccio.
Durant ruptured his right Achilles tendon while playing for the Golden State Warriors during last year's Finals. Even before landing with the Nets in a blockbuster sign-and-trade last summer, the 31-year-old was expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season while rehabilitating, a timeline consistent with other athletes who have suffered Achilles injuries.
June 10 marks the one-year anniversary of Durant's injury.
Even with the current season delayed into the summer and fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those close to Durant have thrown water on the possibility that he'll make a surprise return this year. In May, Nets general manager Sean Marks said the team was not going to "push him" to come back this year; the two-time Finals MVP's business partner and manager, Rich Kleiman, added the notion was "unrealistic."
The Nets are among the 22 teams that are slated to continue play in a campus-style bubble near Orlando. At 30-34 (.469) when the season went on hiatus in mid-March, the team will play eight so-called "seeding games" to determine its position in the playoff field.
The seventh-seeded Nets will compete with the Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards for the final two open playoff berths in the Eastern Conference.