The team the Mavericks will play Monday night is a bit on the odd side.

The Brooklyn Nets have been relatively weak for several seasons, winning a combined 69 games in the past three seasons.

This year? They have surprised a great many NBA observers by hanging around .500 pretty much all the way after starting out dreadfully (8-18).

They have done this despite one of their best players, Caris LeVert missing more than two months to injury and also losing Spencer Dinwiddie for an extended period, too.

Yes, the Nets play in the Eastern Conference, where .500 puts you squarely in the playoff hunt. But they have regained respectability not with a superstar high draft pick, but with a smart combination of non-lottery draftees, astute trades and a couple second-tier free-agent signees. Their high draft picks in recent years were dealt away in previous trades that proved regrettable.

Swapping the future for oldsters Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett did, indeed, set the franchise back.

But those days are over and the Nets are back on the rise with a group headlined by DeAngelo Russell, who blossomed into an all-star this season. He was acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in the deal that sent Kyle Kuzma to LA.

LeVert was a trade acquisition from Indiana for Thaddeus Young. Dinwiddie and Joe Harris signed as free agents.

All of those players have become keepers, to the point that most of them have great appeal around the league.

And then there is former Texas Longhorn Jarrett Allen, who was drafted 22nd and has become a very functional center in his second season.

Given that the Nets have a relatively new building, the lure of New York and a solid group of young-ish players who will likely make the playoffs this season, it’s not a reach to think that they could make a nice push through free agency, plus they have two first-round picks in June, although neither will be in the top 10, it appears.

The bottom line, as hard as it might be to grasp for Mavericks fans, is that the Nets are doing what the Mavs had hoped to be doing this March – playing games in the middle of a playoff chase.

That doesn’t mean the Mavericks won’t pass teams like Brooklyn and several others in their own domain (read: Western Conference). They have laid great groundwork with Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and substantial salary cap space this summer.

But while the Nets have done it a little differently, their way looks to be working, too.

Twitter: @ESefko

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