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With a Sunday night victory over the Indiana Pacers, the Brooklyn Nets clinched their first playoff berth in three seasons. That brief span isn’t nearly as impressive as the amount of territory the Nets had to cover during it, and the limited resources they had at their disposal.
From 2015-17, the Brooklyn Nets won 41 games, total. The draft pick stash that most teams would accumulate over such a terrible two-year stretch was mostly looted by the Boston Celtics, residual costs being paid for the Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett trade. But the Nets were able to make, small incremental steps, finding value in myriad places.
They bought low on D’Angelo Russell, eating Timofey Mozgov’s enormous contract and sending out veteran center Brook Lopez. They plucked players like Joe Harris and Spencer Dinwiddie off the scrap heap and developed them into key contributors. They spent wisely on veterans like Jared Dudley, DeMarre Carroll and Ed Davis and hit big on first-round draft picks outside the lottery, like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert.
And even with all those positive moves, they looked like it might not work out in their favor. On Dec. 5, they lost their eighth game in a row. At that point, they were 8-18, getting outscored by an average of 2.0 points per 100 possessions, and had already lost budding star LeVert to a knee injury that looked like it could end his season. They responded with a seven-game winning streak and, in total, have gone 33-22 since then, with a plus-0.5 point differential.
With the help of 538’s Elo Rankings, we can see the Nets downward slide and steady climb back to relevance over the past four seasons.
The Nets weren’t the only team to bust a personal slump on Sunday. The Orlando Magic also clinched a playoff berth, their first in six years. Both teams will have the work cut out for them in the first round, with matchups against the Bucks, 76ers or Raptors looming. Still, the work they’ve done is significant and worth celebration.
Congratulations to both teams and their fans. Enjoy these moments while they’re here because, as you well know, it can be a while before they come again.
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