The Whiteboard: The Brooklyn Nets are ready to revel in chaos

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The 2019-20 season was supposed to be one of growth and experimentation for the Brooklyn Nets with Kevin Durant sidelined the whole year, but no one expected this.

No, we’re not just talking about the obvious coronavirus, which has turned the United States and its sports leagues upside down. Because even without the pandemic (or concerns over it) withholding Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince and Wilson Chandler from participating, Brooklyn would still be down its two best players in KD and Kyrie Irving — not to mention rookie center Nicolas Claxton — due to the normal injury bug.

With all seven(!!) of those players out for the NBA’s restart bubble in Orlando at the end of July, the Nets had plenty of open roster spots to fill with replacement players, and they’ve been busy over the last couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, they waived Theo Pinson to add combo guard Tyler Johnson to a severely decimated backcourt. Wednesday night, it was reported that legendary sixth man Jamal Crawford would soon be added to their ranks, which was swiftly followed by news that they were closing in on a deal with the Michael Beasley.

None of these additions moves the dial one iota for the Brooklyn Nets or their playoff expectations, but damn it all if their revelry in complete and utter chaos won’t be a joy to watch.

Sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, the shorthanded Nets have eight games to try and hold off the Orlando Magic (0.5 games back) and the Washington Wizards (6.0 games back) from forcing them into a play-in scenario, which is triggered if the ninth-place team is within 4.0 games of the 8-seed.

If the Nets fell to eighth in that scenario, they’d need to win one game against their ninth-place challenger to make the playoffs, while the ninth-place team would need to beat Brooklyn twice.

Whether they’re the 7-seed or the 8-seed, is almost irrelevant, however, since their most likely reward would be facing either the Milwaukee Bucks (the best team in basketball before the NBA’s hiatus) or the Toronto Raptors (a sleeper contender). Without KD, Kyrie, Dinwiddie and several other key rotation players, that’s a sweep unless Caris LeVert randomly decides to start averaging 50 points a night.

Although the end result is thoroughly predictable, the Nets are going to go down in a much more delightful blaze of glory with these new arrivals. LeVert and Joe Harris are going to shoot (a lot). Jarrett Allen is the team’s only center. Tyler Johnson is somehow their most credible option at point guard. Jamal Crawford hasn’t shot better than 42 percent from the field in seven years, but dropped 51 the last time he was on an NBA court. And Michael Beasley is a pure, unbridled heat check that’s going to get you 15 off the bench and also make a couple boneheaded plays in the process.

In a scenario where everyone’s going to be rusty and slightly out of shape, Brooklyn is in a prime position to make ugly, chaotic basketball more enjoyable to digest. All of this comes with the obvious disclaimer that above all else, we hope everyone in the Orlando bubble stays safe and coronavirus-free. But assuming that’s the case, these playoffs will still feel more like televised pickup games without fans in attendance, and the Nets are preparing themselves accordingly.

International players may be off limits, but because the Nets can sign any player who was on an NBA or G League roster this season or last season, they’ve still got replacement options available, too!

With Beasley and Crawford on board, that cuts the Nets’ remaining substitute spots down from four to two. One of those should go to wing Justin Anderson, whom the Nets had reportedly agreed to re-sign, but no deal or contract has officially been announced yet. If Brooklyn goes another path, it’ll have two openings, but even if there’s only one, general manager Sean Marks should continue his walk on the wild side.

What the Nets need most of all is help in the frontcourt, unless they go super small and let Allen just soak up all the traditional center minutes. Plenty of names come to mind here. Greg Monroe would be reliable, though a tad bland. Or what about the return of pure energy guys like Kenneth Faried or Alan Williams? The legendary bench celebrations alone would be worth it.

Okay, so maybe some of these guys would be out since they’re playing overseas, but what about respected veteran Amir Johnson, who was reported as a target for Brooklyn by Marc Stein of the New York Times? Plenty of Nets fans would welcome his presence for such a haphazard group.

Let’s not limit our search by position, though, since the Nets have about eight backcourt players and this exercise is all about invoking bedlam and adding yet another guard would lend itself nicely to the complete anarchy of this roster. While Jeremy Lin or Jimmer Fredette would be tempting for brand recognition alone, watching Isaiah Thomas unleash fury in an “I’m gonna get mine” environment would be a joyous occasion.

Or maybe it makes more sense for Marks to embrace small-ball with a Daryl Morey kind of vigor and add another wing! In that case, Lance Stephenson or Nick Young would be the human equivalent of a chef’s kiss to this volatile concoction Marks is brewing. Someone like Iman Shumpert probably makes more sense, especially since he was on the Nets until being waived in December, but if they try to cram in another wing, it wouldn’t get much better than the mayhem of Born Ready or Swaggy P.

Or maybe we could get really weird and go boom-or-bust with former No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett, who’s been in the G League full-time for two years now?

OR WHAT ABOUT EIGHT-TIME NBA ALL-STAR AND NETS LEGEND JOE JOHNSON??

Yep, that settles it. We either want to see Joe Johnson in a Nets uniform again or we’re going to be decidedly less excited about the havoc a roster of LeVert, Harris, Allen, Ty Johnson, Crawford, and Beasley will undoubtedly wreak.

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