Kyrie Irving's season-ending injury won't stop Brooklyn Nets from making playoffs, says Shaquille O'Neal
Friday 21 February 2020 11:20, UK
Shaquille O'Neal said Kyrie Irving's season-ending injury will not stop the Brooklyn Nets from reaching the Eastern Conference playoffs.
On Thursday, Nets general manager Sean Marks announced Irving will undergo season-ending surgery to repair his right shoulder.
The injury, described throughout the season as an "impingement," has bothered Irving since early November. He missed 26 games between November 16 and January 10. In that time, he visited a specialist and received a cortisone shot, but his shoulder has not been 100 per cent since his return to action on January 12.
Asked by Inside The NBA host Ernie Johnson if Irving's absence will negatively impact Brooklyn's playoff aspirations, O'Neal said: "The answer is 'no'. Brooklyn will make the playoffs. They are going to end up as the eighth seed."
The Nets currently sit seventh in the East with a 25-29 record. They have a one-and-a-half game lead on the eighth-placed Orlando Magic with the Washington Wizards a further three games back.
"The teams behind [Brooklyn] are awful," said O'Neal fellow Inside analyst Charles Barkley. "The best thing the Nets have going for them is the Wizards, the Bulls, the Hornets and the Pistons - so Brooklyn are going to make the playoffs.
"But I don't think it matters because [whoever ends up with the seventh and eighth seed] is losing in the first round of the playoffs."
Irving's season-ending surgery also raises questions about the Nets' long-term future. Irving and Kevin Durant both signed with Brooklyn during 2019 free agency. Durant is sidelined for the whole season as he recovers from a ruptured right Achilles and Brooklyn knew they would be waiting until the start of the 2020-21 season to see their superstar duo on the court together.
"This sets [the Nets] up for the future because they were really waiting for Kyrie and KD to play together," O'Neal said. "Now Kyrie can get the surgery, wait out the remainder of the season and work really hard in the summer. Next year, the re-emergence of the two of them comes. That's what everybody wanted to see, those two playing together."
"I think it is fair to question Kyrie's durability," Barkley said. "He has missed a lot of games with a lot of different injuries. At some point, those injuries are going to take their toll and he will no longer be the same player. To me, this was a big year for Kyrie because he had a chance to be a leader."
Speaking on NBA TV's Gametime, analyst Kenny Smith said: "I was surprised the Nets have ruled him out for the season. They obviously have an opportunity to make the playoffs. I'm surprised [the Nets] said 'for the season' and didn't say 'indefinitely' or [out for] 'the rest of the regular season'. To hear the remainder of the season is shocking.
"Now what they have is the team they had last year when Spencer Dinwiddie was the guy taking most of the shots, albeit they also had D'Angelo Russell last year which was big. This is just like last year. These guys have been in this moment before, they are not going to get better. Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert are just going to continue to do it. Kyrie sitting out is not going to make their team better."
Smith's fellow Gametime guest Channing Frye said he expected Brooklyn's season to ultimately end at the hands of a top Eastern Conference seed in the first round of the playoffs.
"It was a 'washed' season from the beginning," he said. "The minute Kyrie and KD step on the floor, that clocks ticks because you're immediately trying to win a 'chip' [championship]. This year with Durant out, I don't know what [they had to gain other than] getting experience of playing with Kyrie, and he has only played in 20 games. They're not even getting real experience.
"Let Caris LeVert and all those guys play and get to the playoffs and make the first round. I look at the list of [top] playoff teams in the East and I don't think they can beat any of those teams."
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