NEW YORK -- Spencer Dinwiddie rattled off a list of hobbled teammates at the Brooklyn Nets' practice facility in January: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, whose strained adductor kept him sidelined from August until the second week of the regular season; Caris LeVert, whose foot injury in November cost him about three months; Allen Crabbe, whose troublesome knee kept him out of the lineup from mid-December to early February; and Jared Dudley, who missed a full month of action due to a hamstring strain before the All-Star break. 

"We've suffered injuries at pretty much every point in time," Dinwiddie told CBS Sports. It went unsaid, though, that Dinwiddie himself had been playing through torn ligaments in his right thumb for months. He scored 29 points in 30 minutes the next day in a win against the Orlando Magic, but hasn't played since. On Jan. 28, he had surgery, and he has spent the last month rehabilitating. 

Dinwiddie will be back in the lineup on Friday against the Charlotte Hornets. It will be the first time in 50 games that he, LeVert and first-time All-Star D'Angelo Russell will be active at the same time. The trio has played just 90 minutes together this season, a fact that makes their dramatic turnaround and winning record all the more impressive. With 19 games left in the regular season, it is possible that we still haven't seen the Nets at their best. 

In Russell, Dinwiddie and LeVert, Brooklyn has three backcourt playmakers who have taken over games and hit high-pressure shots in crunch time. LeVert looked like he was becoming The Guy for the Nets before his injury, and before Russell's All-Star turn, it was not uncommon here to find yourself in a debate centered around him and Dinwiddie. Even now, despite Russell's ridiculous run of shot-making that started in January, Dinwiddie has been more efficient this season in pick-and-roll, isolation and overall. If the three of them find a place of cohesion, in which they make each other better, get their fair share of Brooklyn's possessions and never let opposing defenses off the hook, this team could scare the hell out of a higher seed. The Nets rank only 18th in offensive rating, but they space the floor, put immense pressure on the rim and make opponents work to close out to their shooters. Should LeVert and Dinwiddie reach their respective pre-injury levels of production, they will be hard to stop. 

It might be unreasonable, however, to expect LeVert to get back to where he was. He has shot 32.4 percent in the seven games since his return, and he went scoreless for the first time since his rookie season on Wednesday against Washington. In a cruel twist, it was also his bobblehead night. If we are going to see something close to the ideal version of this Brooklyn team, he will have to fully regain his feel for the game, without disrupting Russell, as Dinwiddie tries to shake off his own rust. This is not to say that the Nets are about to have a Celtics-like too much talent problem -- shoutout to Scary Terry! -- but coach Kenny Atkinson will be walking a tightrope with his rotation. Atkinson's main priority in between now and in the playoffs is winning games, but he must do that while getting these guys accustomed to playing with each other and figuring out how to stagger them.

Before Caris LeVert's injuryPTSFGAMINUSG%

D'Angelo Russell

16.8

14.9

27.3

27.4

Spencer Dinwiddie

13.9

10.6

27.1

20.5

Caris LeVert

18.4

14.6

29.7

26.0

Since Caris LeVert's injuryPTS FGA MIN USG%

D'Angelo Russell

21.8

19.1

31.1

30.7

Spencer Dinwiddie

18.5

12.8

29.1

25.3

Caris LeVert

8.9

10.6

23.6

23.4

In a perfect world, the Nets would be able to experiment with various lineup combinations, tell the players they were open-minded about how this will work and let everything work itself out over time. Time, however, is not a luxury they will be afforded. Brooklyn's next six games -- against Charlotte (7:30 p.m. ET on Friday -- watch on fuboTV), Miami, Dallas, Cleveland, Atlanta and Detroit -- feel vital because of the hellish stretch that awaits afterward. In mid-March, the Nets will go on a road trip that feels like some sort of punishment: Oklahoma City, Utah, the Clippers, Sacramento, the Lakers, Portland and Philadelphia. They will then play the Celtics, Bucks, Raptors, Bucks (again!) and Pacers before finishing their season against the Heat. 

As brutal as the schedule is, Brooklyn has no choice but to look at it as an opportunity to get ready for the playoffs, where no wins will be easy and it will need possession-by-possession sharpness that isn't always required in the regular season. Being at full strength at least gives the Nets a better chance to survive this stretch, and their year so far has been defined by rising to the occasion. All season long, they have overcome adversity, used depth as a strength and played with the spirit you only see with teams that are more than the sum of their parts. Days before his surgery, Dinwiddie said their resilience has become their identity and "breeds an intrasquad confidence." Let's see how far that takes them.