Kristian Winfield: With or without Kevin Durant, Nets’ mission remains

NEW YORK — The Nets have lost two things with Kevin Durant out for at least a month and a half:

1) Their most versatile defender; a perennial Defensive Player of the Year snub with the myriad ways he impacts a game on that end of the floor.

2) An all-time bucket-getter and clutch scorer who owns more Olympic gold medals (three) than NBA championships (two).

Put simply, the Nets are down one of the most talented basketball players in the sport’s history, but their mission remains the same. Whether or not the league’s former MVP frontrunner is on the court, the Nets still aim to be a championship team, and thus must continue building those championship habits without Durant.

How they fare in games with Durant off the floor must improve so that when he returns, he latches onto a hot-air balloon instead of schlepping a giant mass from underwater.

“I think everything is applicable,” Nets coach Steve Nash said. “We just miss the presence, size, length, athleticism defensively, and we miss the leading scorer in the NBA offensively. But I don’t think we’re gonna change a ton of what we do.”

At first listen, Nash's thought process seemed unreasonable.

Durant has averaged just over 29 points a game. He’s carried the Nets’ offense for extended spurts and won games this season with only eight and nine available players on the roster. Of course the Nets offense will change without Durant’s scoring ability, not to mention his unfair playmaking prowess at just under six assists per game.

But the game plan, Nash insisted, doesn’t change whether the Nets’ star is in or out of their lineup.

“We just can’t go to him on certain sets,” he said. “We want to evolve, we want to grow, we want to push this thing forward, but I don’t think the division or direction while he’s out is gonna be to throw everything out and start all over. We want to play within the framework we’ve already set.”

With Durant out, more opportunities become available for the rookies competing for minutes, as well as the veterans who’ve seen inconsistent playing time. James Johnson, DeAndre’ Bembry and Bruce Brown could all see a bump in playing time, as will rookies Kessler Edwards and David Duke Jr.

As for the others, the objective remains the same: James Harden will continue captaining this Nets offense, and without Durant, he’ll have to shift gears. He can no longer go stretches on auto-pilot. The Nets will also benefit from having Kyrie Irving, who will be key as the Nets play seven of their next nine games on the road. So, those two will certainly take a step forward with Durant out, potentially beyond the Feb. 20 NBA All-Star Game.

“We want to keep pushing hard for growth and being self-critical and analyzing our play daily so that we can make those improvements,” Nash said, “but when [Kevin] comes back, hopefully we’ve moved this thing forward, and we’re in a better position, and he jumps back in, and we’re able to do things at a higher level at both ends of the floor.”