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The Brooklyn Nets are getting ready to start their title run, and it’ll need to be all hands on deck if they want to make it far into the playoffs.
This season is unprecedented for the Nets as they’ll be without the services of their star point guard Kyrie Irving until he reverses course and gets vaccinated.
The Nets are well equipped to handle his absence as they still boast the talents of both James Harden and Kevin Durant, meaning they can compete with anybody on any given night.
While they seem all set there, there are still some question marks surrounding another one of their marquee pieces. LaMarcus Aldridge, who came over from the Spurs last season, is going into his second season with the Nets. However, his first one came to an abrupt end as he shockingly announced his retirement from the NBA after five games with the team.
This came after he experienced an irregular heartbeat, but he felt like he was ready to give it another run and now he’s back. When asked if he’s nervous about his return to the game, he said he has no issues.
Aldridge Addresses His Health
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“(It’s a feeling of) excitement,” he said via the New York Daily News. “Excitement, you know, where I can kind of change my story and not let that couple of nights kind of dictate my career, and be able to be back out there and try and help this team win.”
It seems like any of the worries or issues he had last season are long behind him.
The Nets haven’t come out and said who will be starting between Nic Claxton and Aldridge, but both of them will figure to be playing big roles on the Nets this season.
When Aldridge was talking about making a comeback, Nets general manager Sean Marks actually tried to talk him out of it.
“I tried to talk him out of it,” Nets GM Sean Marks according to the NY Daily News. “I said, ‘Why? You don’t need this? Why would you come back?’ I think it’s important to see the conviction, and it’s not conviction made without really doing your due diligence.”
After he cleared his health benchmarks and got the all-clear, Marks changed his tune. With the absence of Irving, the Nets will need all the help they can get, so that will be a way that Aldridge can help chip in.
Aldridge Close to Milestone
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Perhaps another reason Aldridge decided to return is so he can cross the 20,000 point milestone. Durant wants to help him get there.
“He was like 49 points away from 20,000, and I was like, ‘sh–, I want him to get that,” said Durant. “So having him be back with us, he’ll probably hit that mark pretty early in the season, and I’m looking forward to being a part of that with him. It’s so good to see him playing again.”
While he’s not the deadly scorer he was earlier with in his career with the Trail Blazers, Aldridge can still be a force in the paint and with Harden and Durant feeding him, he might cross this milestone very quick.
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