The last time Caris LeVert saw the postseason, he was in the COVID-necessitated bubble trying to carry the Nets to what would’ve been a stunning upset of the Raptors.

Tuesday night, the circumstances were very different: He was back at Barclays Center trying to beat the Nets — not help them — in the play-in tournament, looking to lead the eighth-seeded Cavaliers past the No. 7 Nets and into the main draw of the postseason. In an ironic twist, the player the Nets dealt LeVert for last season — James Harden — was in Philadelphia, and the player they traded Harden for — Ben Simmons — was on the bench still not ready to make his Nets debut due to a back injury.

Before the trade deadline, the woeful Pacers dealt LeVert to the Cavaliers in exchange for guard Ricky Rubio and draft compensation. In Cleveland, he averaged 13.6 points, 3.9 assists and 3.4 rebounds in 19 games, 10 of which were starts.

LeVert helped the Cavaliers reach the play-in tournament, a major surprise for a team that had averaged 20 wins over the previous three seasons. But under coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the young core far surpassed expectations.

“I think he’ll rise to the occasion. When you go back and look at him historically, when the moment calls for it he’s there,” Bickerstaff said. “He provides us a [scoring] punch, another guy who can beat his man and go score the ball, which we all know in playoff and postseason basketball is extremely important. You need guys who can beat their man and create, and Caris has the ability to do that.”

LeVert is one of only three Cavaliers players with playoff experience, along with Kevin Love and Rajon Rondo. Even if it is only nine games, he has at least experienced it before.

LeVert’s NBA career has been full of stops and starts, injuries, flashes of his immense ability, two trades and a very scary health situation. A first-round pick (20th overall) out of Michigan in 2016, LeVert was limited early in his career by a serious foot injury. He methodically got better and averaged a career-best 18.7 points per game in 2019-20, when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his season.

The following year, LeVert was off to a strong start, before being included in the James Harden trade that sent him to the Pacers. As part of the trade in reviewing his health, it was revealed he had a cancerous mass in his left kidney. Fortunately, it was detected early enough that it was able to be removed and he only missed two months.

“In a way, this trade definitely showed and revealed what was going on in my body, so I’m definitely looking at it from that side and definitely humbled to know that this trade could’ve possibly saved me in the long run,” LeVert said at the time.