The Nets' New Starting Lineup is a Beautiful, Chaotic Mess

The Brooklyn Nets are rolling out a starting five on Sunday that sounds like a randomly generated 2K MyLeague roster, but it is very real and very relevant for your Sunday night viewing.

According to Underdog NBA, Brooklyn is officially starting Nolan Traore, Chaney Johnson, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, and Day'Ron Sharpe against the Indiana Pacers.

"Underdog NBA tweeted: 'Lineup alert: Nets will start Traore, Johnson, Porter Jr., Randle, Sharpe on Sunday.'"

This is exactly what happens when injuries force a team to get weird. With rookie Egor Demin officially shut down for the rest of the season due to plantar fasciitis, the Nets are handing the keys to Traore and hoping the car does not immediately crash into a wall.

To be fair, Traore has actually looked like a real NBA player lately. The French guard recently dropped 17 points and four assists in just 23 minutes against the Memphis Grizzlies, shooting 80 percent from deep. He is stepping into a massive usage vacuum, which is the exact kind of chaos prop bettors love to see on a Sunday slate.

Down low, the veteran duo of Porter Jr. and Randle are basically holding the entire rebounding operation together with duct tape. The two forwards recently combined for 14 of Brooklyn's 27 defensive rebounds in a single game, proving they are the only things keeping this team from getting completely bullied in the paint.

Brooklyn desperately needs this group to click. They are coming off a brutal 110-94 loss to the Detroit Pistons and already got smoked by this exact same Indiana squad 136-109 back in late October. The Pacers are going to push the pace, meaning this makeshift Nets lineup has to figure out its chemistry immediately or risk getting run out of the gym by halftime.

We will see if Traore can keep his hot streak alive and if the veterans can secure enough boards to keep the game competitive. If this group looks completely lost on Sunday night, expect the Nets to keep shuffling the deck before they head to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks on Tuesday.