Before the nets season started, there were cries that the nets had too many big wings and not enough wings. Now, though, roughly a quarter of the way through the season, the Nets 4 and 5 have been plagued by a variety of issues – injury, illness, disappointment – that have kept things precarious ahead.

As happened last season, the Nets made a 5 change. In both cases, the main player was LaMarcus Aldridge. Signed by the Nets again in April, Aldridge replaced DeAndre Jordan at center and even after retiring from the LMA due to heart ailment, Jordan never returned to the rotation, being replaced by Blake Griffin.

Now, after a sad start to the offensive, Griffin has been sent off the bench for Aldridge and just as he did in his short stint in April, the 36-year-old Texans have excelled. Not only did he pull out of the squad in the first half versus the Cavs on Monday, he didn’t play at all on Wednesday against the Celtics, both winning. Aldridge scored 38 points and had 20 rebounds in those two games while shooting 17 of 27 overall (63.0 percent) and blocking a shot in every game.

Will Griffin suffer the same fate as Jordan?

“We just need to look at different things,” Steve Nash said. “I think it increased our pace. [Aldridge is] Not the fastest guy on Earth, but we played fast. We played with ideas. We were not stagnant. We moved the ball. I thought we defended well.

However, if Aldridge continues to play at this level, it is difficult to imagine him returning to the bench. In fact, before joining the starting lineup, he talked about the difficulties of coming off the bench, which he did only 28 times in his career.

“You’ve been one type of player or a certain type of player throughout your career. It’s definitely different than sitting on the bench and not playing much,” Aldridge said.

It’s all about moving production forward, Kevin Durant said Friday, explaining what he thinks the Big Nets should bring to the Nets table. He thinks Griffin will have a role in belittling the streak.

“Someone who can space, drop their shot and only have a big body that can bounce and protect the edge,” Kevin Durant said on Wednesday. “We’re going to need all our greats all year long, no matter what. I know Blake wasn’t there, but we want him to still be ready to be the team we want to be.”

Griffin leads the league in accusations and has proven his defensive presence as well as being a leader on and off the field. “Hard caps and steel tips” have a thing for him. But offensively, it was surprisingly ineffective. He’s averaged a low 5.5 points in his career, shooting only 31.8 percent overall and 16.1 percent from a 3-point span. In his 26 games last season, Griffin averaged 10.0 points and fired 49.2 percent overall and 38.3 percent from depth.

On top of that, Nick Claxton’s situation clouded the Nets front court. He has missed 15 games in a row due to an undisclosed illness which he admitted has exhausted his stamina, and led to weight loss and the need to “replenish” which could require a stint with Long Island before he returns to play. It’s easy to forget that before his fall, the 22-year-old was a Nets 5 starter, not Griffin, not Aldridge. (There have been reports from both ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer that Networks could dangle Claxton in the trade if Irving doesn’t return, as expected.)

The best possible case scenario for the Nets of course is for Griffin to return to form and Claxton to return to good health, giving Nash more options. Meanwhile, James Harden spoke about how Aldridge affected the match.

“I told him in the game, one thing about him is you don’t have to worry about him making or missing shots,” Harden said of the LMA. “He’s got over 20,000 points. So I don’t know the last time he started – maybe he’ll have to get used to starting over – but he’s going to get there. He sure definitely did. But you don’t have to worry about that.”

“He’s going to start, and once this starts, he brings a different element into our game on the offensive end. Our attack will come and we’ll keep growing and improving. … Now with LaMarcus in our starting lineup, he’s giving us a different role sometimes with his pick-and-pop shot. Adults are now unable to sit in paint and fill in paint.”

Or, as Ime Udoka, Nets assistant last year and now head coach for the Celtics, put it, “It brings a different dynamic to their team.”

Meanwhile, despite the change up front and other issues — such as Kyrie Irving’s continued absence and Joe Harris’ injury — the Nets continued to move forward. At 14-5 overall and 8-2 on the road, they have the best all-around start in franchise history, NBA or ABA. They lead the league in road wins and have established a defensive identity.