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Kyrie Irving is back. James Harden is three games away from his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets. Kevin Durant looks very much like the top 3 players who have defined his career.
So what exactly do we know about this new-looking, very powerful and absolutely fascinating Brooklyn Nets team?
Not a fucking thing.
The Nets’ thrilling double-overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night – their first game with the KD-Beard-Kyrie line playing together – tells us absolutely nothing. Ditto for the previous two games which featured winning games from Harden and Durant, including a huge one against the Milwaukee Bucks, as Irving was left out for personal reasons.
If, reasonably, you think the Big Three of the Nets are too talented to doubt, there is plenty to strengthen your position. Harden and KD started 2-0 together, Kyrie’s comeback and wrinkles that have yet to be corrected still required a double overtime for floor, and these three were (for the most part) phenomenal together.
Durant was 12 of 25 for 38 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Irving fell 37. Harden landed another triple-double, registering a 21-10-12 night.
That’s 96 points between them. Scary stuff.
But if, like me, you have more doubts than confidence in how this brew of stars will eventually blend together, you can squint your eyes and still see what worries you. Harden missed a few close-ups, at the right time, in the follow-up. This trio, Kyrie in particular, sometimes play head-to-head basketball like there aren’t two other beaters in the world – effective he thought, a sign of possible cracks to come. And, of course, a loss to a Cleveland Cavaliers team with a fraction of the Nets brimming with talent.
Brooklyn is the most fascinating team in the NBA, and what it will ultimately become – and how it will ultimately be judged – in the playoff months remains a Rorschach test. Three games after Harden’s tenure in Brooklyn (2-1), one game after Irving’s return (0-1), and the Nets are still what you thought they were a week ago when trade fell.
Their combined talent is beyond doubt. Sometimes watching KD and Harden, KD and Irving, KD and Irving and Harden – any combination possible – was hypnotic basketball with a collection of incredibly talented stars. And yet the Nets’ defense, tenacity and ability to win games the hard way remain open questions, ones that were particularly highlighted on Wednesday night in the 147-135 loss of former Net Jarrett Allen recently dumped. Allen’s 12-11 double-double doesn’t tell the whole story. He’s been hitting big shots, slashing crucial rebounds and for great parts of the fourth quarter and that extra time he’s been the most timely and important player on the court this Colin Sexton side.
He also pointed out who in the frontcourt can be an effective part of what the Nets need outside of their scoring line.
It’s a long and difficult process to lump multiple superstars into one team, a fact reinforced when this happens in the middle of a season – especially with one of those stars leaving their old team through a horrific divorce, and another leaving for a long time for nebulous personal reasons which certainly seem to include open dissent towards his coach.
Take the Miami Heat 2010-11. When LeBron James and Chris Bosh arrived to join Dwyane Wade that year, this Big Three – perhaps the best talent comparison for this Big Three – started 9-8. I have covered this team and it was nothing but angst, turmoil and frustration for much of this season. And yet the trio came to a successful end in the years to come.
The beginnings can be deceptive. In both ways. Take Harden’s story with the stars he insisted on playing.
In 2017, he wanted Chris Paul with him in Houston, and as was almost always the case with the Rockets, he got what he wanted. Their departure was wonderful. They won their first 14 games together. They ran off and were feared. But the story didn’t end in glory, and it didn’t end harmoniously.
So Harden got what he wanted, again: CP3 released, old friend and former MVP player Russell Westbrook. Once again, a good start: this time off to an 11-3 start and the feeling that all skeptics, tired of only two heavy-duty rate stars could successfully coexist, needed to readjust their thinking. Yet this story too ended badly and acrimoniously.
So here we are. Harden has what he wants again. He, KD and Irving are the most talented NBA trio since the Miami Big Three, at least on paper, and like so much in the NBA, the exhilaration of a few games now equates to any sort of guarantee of what. go follow.
Losing in Cleveland doesn’t prove that we who doubt this version of the Brooklyn Nets know what we’re talking about. But, once they’ve got a searing tear of wins – and they will – that fact won’t guarantee what follows the playoffs either.
The Nets are talented. The Nets are full of stars who struggle to get along, stay happy, or win – often all three – with other stars. The Nets are the most interesting team in basketball but present the biggest question mark. And the Nets, whatever happens in the weeks and months to come, are only beginning to show themselves.
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