Kyrie Irving out for the season

Kyrie Irving (Erik Drost, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Jack Maloney and Michael Blaskey Blomain of CBS Sports, the Brooklyn Nets will be without their star guard Kyrie Irving of Melbourne, Australia for the rest of the 2020-21 National Basketball Association regular season. Irving has missed 26 games this season with a shoulder ailment, and now he will require surgery.

In 20 games this season, Irving is averaging 27.4 points per game, 6.4 assists per game and 5.2 rebounds per game. In fact, those are career highs in all three categories. Those statistics just lose a little significance because the averages are in a small sample size of games played compared to his previous eight NBA seasons, where he was an all-star for six of them.

Irving, who came to Brooklyn from Boston in the offseason, has also been marvelous in 20 games this season for the Nets from the free throw line. He has a free throw percentage of .922, which is the best free throw percentage in the NBA and the best in his NBA career. Irving has made 94 of 102 free throws.

Remarkably without their two star players (Irving and Kevin Durant of Suitland, Maryland), the Nets are still in the thick of things for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With a record of 25 wins and 28 losses, the Nets are seventh in the East and lead the Washington Wizards by five games for a playoff spot.

The Nets will need point guard Spencer Dinwiddie of Los Angeles, California, small forward Caris LeVert of Columbus, Ohio and former NBA All-Star center DeAndre Jordan of Houston, Texas to continue to step up. Dinwiddie leads the Nets with 6.6 assists per game, and now with Irving out, leads the Nets with 21 points per game. LeVert is averaging a career high 15.3 points per game and Jordan is averaging a team high 9.9 rebounds per game.