With Kyrie Irving dominating the information cycle in latest days, now seems to be as if almost as good a time as any to remind you that even for these who take all of the Brooklyn Nets’ off-court docket factors out of the equation, they’re nonetheless a terribly unhealthy basketball crew.
I don’t assume it’s inside the least hyperbolic to say that over the previous few years, the Nets have confirmed themselves to be the largest disappointment — the largest failure — inside the NBA of the twenty first century, and presumably of all time. it would not matter what crew of yesteryear did not reside as a lot as a outcome of the hype, none has achieved it with pretty the pizazz of Brooklyn.
The Nets have severely underperformed rather a lot that the disappointing Kobe Bryant-Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol Lakers crew that earned the No. 7 seed and was swept inside the predominant spherical of the playoffs, or the ringless Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook-James Harden Thunder squads — with three eventual MVPs on the roster — don’t even come shut to this unmitigated disaster.
It seems to be as if an impossibly very prolonged time in the past, however assume again to how involved you have been for the the rest of the league everytime you found that Harden was traded to the Nets to affix Irving and Durant. Many believed that a crew with two of the biggest scorers the sport has ever seen and one man with good handles wouldn’t simply win one championship, however a quantity of. they may’ve been the subsequent NBA dynasty.
Three years into Kyrie and KD’s tenure in Brooklyn — with seemingly dozens of controversies underneath their belt and Harden swapped for Ben Simmons — there’s solely a single playoff collection win to level for it.
G/O Media may get a fee
15% off
ASYSTEM – Pre-practice+
Bruce Wayne-impressed
Pre-practice presents enhanced vitality and greater restoration in your prolonged exercises, with InnovaTea and Tibetan Cordyceps to gas you.
to this point, the Nets are three-6 of their first 9 video games to start out this yr, have the worst defensive rating inside the league, fired their coach, suspended their mercurial level guard, and at biggest are a play-in crew for the second yr in a row — in the event that they’re fortunate.
Even for these who deal with simply the basketball side, no crew has ever achieved much less with extra.
“however when Kevin Durant was a shoe dimension smaller.” properly, he’s not. That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard and one which for some set off people solely apply right here. You’ve by no means heard, “properly if Lebron James’ wingspan was a little bit bit shorter, Andre Iguadola would’ve made that layup.”
“properly if NY metropolis didn’t have a vaccine mandate for lots of final season, Kyrie would’ve performed your full yr and the Nets would’ve been the subsequent seed with greater crew chemistry.” nonetheless it did, and it was Kyrie’s choice to not get vaccinated. Plus it’s faraway from assured they may’ve actually been okay to get previous the japanese convention champion Celtics, who swept Brooklyn.
This crew is completely damaged, from prime to backside. The Nets have accomplished nothing since this particular group of stars was launched collectively, and in addition they are going to carry out nothing inside the prime. Harden was ready to get out, and now the Nets have Simmons who seems to be even worse to start out this season than as quickly as we final noticed him taking half in basketball, passing up dunks inside the playoffs.
It doesn’t matter how good the particular person gamers are, they’re simply not a great crew. When Irving comes again from suspension, I’m constructive he’ll proceed to discover 26.9 factors per recreation on 21.5 discipline objective makes an try till the All-Star break when he decides to maneuver to Belize to start out a religion. Durant will get his 30 as properly, nonetheless it would come all by means of an terrible lot of losses.
There’s no clear path for strategies to maneuver on from this particular iteration of the Brooklyn Nets. Durant has already requested a commerce that didn’t happen, seemingly as a outcome of he’s worth better than any crew is eager to surrender. He’s not a free agent till 2026. Simmons isn’t a free agent till 2025, and that i can’t think about any crew that isn’t rostered with a Harden who desires to go away would commerce for him.
There have been rumors about Irving to the Lakers, nonetheless it seems more and more unlikely as a outcome of what crew would want that distraction? The silver lining is that he’s a free agent this offseason, so Brooklyn may on an everyday basis let him stroll. The Nets have two first-spherical picks on this upcoming draft after which don’t have one other till 2027.
This crew’s current seems to be pretty bleak and the future doesn’t look rather a lot greater. They did it to themselves by assembling this group of proficient however in poor well being-becoming gadgets like a toddler defiantly making an try to make the triangle match into the sq.-original hole.
0 Comments