Taurean Prince believes Nets can contend in the still-hypothetical NBA playoffs

Tribune Content Agency

NEW YORK — Nets forward Taurean Prince said he’s “very confident” his team can have some success in the playoffs — whenever the season resumes play.

“I’m very confident,” Prince said on Episode 6 of The Tidal League Podcast. “I think we can do anything that any of the other teams can do honestly as long as we come and play our best ball on any given night. I mean, we beat some of the best teams that are contenders now so there isn’t any doubt in our mind that we can’t hoop with the best of them. We just got to be consistent.”

Consistency was the biggest issue from start to finish for a Nets team that entered the season with heightened expectations after a home-run free agency landed both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. Durant never played a game, rehabbing from his ruptured Achilles surgery, and Irving was mired by injury all season, eventually opting for season-ending surgery on his right shoulder.

The Nets entered the coronavirus hiatus as the seventh seed in the East. If the NBA resumed its season and began with the playoffs, Brooklyn would enter the playoffs facing the defending champion Toronto Raptors in the first round.

They would also enter the playoffs with the relative uncertainty of an interim head coach and an offseason where everything is on the table as general manager Sean Marks looks to construct a championship-caliber roster. Jacque Vaughn is currently at the helm after the Nets and Kenny Atkinson parted ways in early March. Vaughn’s last act was coaching his team to a road win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Nets’ last game before the season was suspended.

As a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the NBA opted to fully shut down team practice facilities, though it is eyeing a date of “no earlier than May 8.”

Prince spoke about how the team has stayed in touch while remaining socially distanced.

“Us as a team, we talk all the time,” he said. “Our coaches stay in contact with us as well. They try to put us in the best position to stay in shape, work out and make sure we have different opportunities to be able to do so. They’re doing their part. We’re doing ours. We’re literally waiting for the moment we can get back to a schedule and get back to hooping.”

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