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With Kyrie Irving dominating the information cycle in current days, now looks as if pretty much as good a time as any to remind you that even when you take all of the Brooklyn Nets’ off-court points out of the equation, they’re nonetheless a extremely unhealthy basketball group.
I don’t assume it’s in the slightest degree hyperbolic to say that over the previous few years, the Nets have confirmed themselves to be the largest disappointment — the largest failure — within the NBA of the twenty first century, and possibly of all time. It doesn’t matter what group of yesteryear did not dwell as much as the hype, none has accomplished it with fairly the pizazz of Brooklyn.
The Nets have severely underperformed a lot that the disappointing Kobe Bryant-Dwight Howard-Pau Gasol Lakers group that earned the No. 7 seed and was swept within the first 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 near this unmitigated catastrophe.
It looks as if an impossibly very long time in the past, however assume again to how involved you have been for the remainder of the league if you discovered that Harden was traded to the Nets to affix Irving and Durant. Many believed {that a} group with two of the best scorers the sport has ever seen and one man with good handles wouldn’t simply win one championship, however a number of. They may’ve been the subsequent NBA dynasty.
Three years into Kyrie and KD’s tenure in Brooklyn — with seemingly dozens of controversies beneath their belt and Harden swapped for Ben Simmons — there’s solely a single playoff sequence win to indicate for it.
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Thus far, the Nets are 3-6 of their first 9 video games to begin this 12 months, have the worst defensive score within the league, fired their coach, suspended their mercurial level guard, and at finest are a play-in group for the second 12 months in a row — in the event that they’re fortunate.
Even when you give attention to simply the basketball side, no group has ever accomplished much less with extra.
“But when Kevin Durant was a shoe dimension smaller.” Nicely, he’s not. That’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard and one which for some purpose folks solely apply right here. You’ve by no means heard, “Nicely if Lebron James’ wingspan was a bit bit shorter, Andre Iguadola would’ve made that layup.”
“Nicely if New York Metropolis didn’t have a vaccine mandate for many of final season, Kyrie would’ve performed the entire 12 months and the Nets would’ve been a better seed with higher group chemistry.” However it did, and it was Kyrie’s determination to not get vaccinated. Plus it’s removed from assured they’d’ve truly been ok to get previous the Japanese Convention champion Celtics, who swept Brooklyn.
This group is totally damaged, from prime to backside. The Nets have completed nothing since this specific group of stars was introduced collectively, and they’re going to accomplish nothing sooner or later. Harden was capable of get out, and now the Nets have Simmons who appears even worse to begin this season than after we final noticed him taking part in basketball, passing up dunks within the playoffs.
It doesn’t matter how good the person gamers are, they’re simply not an excellent group. When Irving comes again from suspension, I’m positive he’ll proceed to attain 26.9 factors per recreation on 21.5 area aim makes an attempt till the All-Star break when he decides to maneuver to Belize to begin a faith. Durant will get his 30 as effectively, however it would come throughout an terrible lot of losses.
There’s no clear path for learn how to transfer on from this specific iteration of the Brooklyn Nets. Durant has already requested a commerce that didn’t occur, seemingly as a result of he’s value greater than any group is keen to surrender. He’s not a free agent till 2026. Simmons isn’t a free agent till 2025, and I can’t think about any group that isn’t rostered with a Harden who needs to depart would commerce for him.
There have been rumors about Irving to the Lakers, but it surely appears more and more unlikely as a result of what group would need that distraction? The silver lining is that he’s a free agent this offseason, so Brooklyn may all the time let him stroll. The Nets have two first-round picks on this upcoming draft after which don’t have one other till 2027.
This group’s current appears fairly bleak and the longer term doesn’t look a lot better. They did it to themselves by assembling this group of proficient however ill-fitting items like a toddler defiantly attempting to make the triangle match into the square-shaped gap.
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