Brooklyn Nets stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have entered the NBA's health and safety protocols.

They give the Nets nine players in the protocols. Forward Paul Millsap entered the protocols Monday and was followed by forwards LaMarcus Aldridge, James Johnson and DeAndre' Bembry and guard Jevon Carter on Tuesday morning. They were joined Tuesday evening by James Harden and Bruce Brown.

For a player to be cleared from the protocols, he must return two negative tests 24 hours apart.

COVID-19 concerns and the desire to pare back Durant's hefty workload have led the Nets to bring back Irving, who needed to return negative COVID-19 tests on five consecutive days before he could rejoin the team even before he entered the league's protocols.

Whenever Irving is cleared to return, he will be with the team in games only in a part-time role. Because of his unvaccinated status and New York City's vaccine mandate, Irving can play only in Brooklyn's road games in cities that do not have similar rules. There are 24 such games remaining on the Nets' regular-season schedule.

On Oct. 12, the team decided it would not have Irving on the roster as a part-time player, with his return seemingly dependent on him either getting vaccinated or a change in New York City's vaccine mandate. However, with the roster hit hard by COVID-19 in addition to injuries, Nets brass agreed to bring back Irving even in his limited role.

Brooklyn had already planned to sit Durant for Saturday's home game against the Orlando Magic to rest his sore right ankle. The league's top scorer at 29.7 points per game, Durant also is among the league leaders in minutes per game at 37.0, the most minutes he has averaged in eight years, since he averaged 38.5 minutes per game during the 2013-14 season.

This is not the first time Durant has been in the league's protocols for COVID-19. He tested positive in March 2020 during the season he sat out while recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon. Last season, he was deemed to be a close contact of someone who had tested positive and had to miss four games while he was placed in a seven-day quarantine.

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed to elevate testing for two weeks starting Dec. 26. Players and staff will be tested on game days except for those who received their booster shot 14-plus days earlier or recently recovered from the virus, according to a memo obtained earlier this week by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Additionally, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association are discussing a plan that would require teams decimated by COVID-19 to sign additional replacement players, league sources told ESPN's Wojnarowski and Baxter Holmes.