James Harden to the Nets Is Real
James Harden is now a Brooklyn Net. The ramifications of this trade are just so bonkers and I needed a minute to process my thoughts, but I think I am ready to write an article. It is a good idea to go over the details of this trade first. The Brooklyn Nets receive James Harden and a 2024 second-round pick. The Cleveland Cavaliers receive Jarrett Allen, Aleksander Vezenkov, and Taurean Prince. The Houston Rockets acquire Caris LeVert, Dante Exum, and Rodions Kurucs, along with the right to four pick swaps with the Nets and three additional first-round selections from the Nets.
The Cavs were seemingly only in this trade to make the salaries work and they walked away with a great piece in Jarrett Allen. Go Cleveland. The Rockets acquire a good piece in LeVert (more on this at the end of the article) and a lot of picks for the future. I guess the hope with the pick swaps is that the Nets will just fall off a cliff after the 2023 season and two of those swaps will be very lucrative as the one for the coming up season is relatively useless since there is no earthly way in which the Rockets do better than the Nets. There isn’t a whole lot to digest here as mostly what they did is recoup the losses they’ve taken from the Chris Paul trade.
As for the team of the hour, the Brooklyn Nets, there is much intrigue to be discussed. Let’s get the bad out of the way first. James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant have usage rates that add up to 90.2% which is just so startling. These three players literally occupy 90% of a team’s plays while on the floor. There is a positive spin on this, however, as when these three are on the floor, there is not much of an argument for anyone else touching or shooting the ball. Worse, these three players could all be gone in a matter of two seasons, which judging by the temperament of all three, is more probable than possible. The team had to get rid of two of its best rotational pieces and is now down to seven or eight viable players. Not to mention the fact that even when I do get to the good, that stuff is only relevant if Kyrie Irving actually plays which is for some damn reason a toss-up night-in, night-out.
There will, however, be plenty of time in the future to be negative and dump hatred on this team. For now, I want to talk about the absolute offensive juggernaut we are all about to have to bow before. There is genuinely a world in which this combination of three players averages 85 to 90 points per game. That means that every other player on the team, on an average night, only needs to score about 30 points combined to get a win. The Nets are already third in average points per game and they just added one of the five best scorers in the NBA to their roster. This is ridiculous. They will have to play small when Deandre Jordan is off the court, however, Durant and Harden have plenty of experience playing on teams that want to go small come crunch time. This team just immediately became the front runner by a wide margin. There is no way to know if this team can mesh and even if they do mesh well together if they can get it done over the long term. However, in the short term, the Nets have the firepower to bury any team by twenty points on any given night.
The crux for this team lies with the effort Harden is willing to put in and the mental state of Kyrie Irving. If Harden can work his way back into shape, start putting in some minimal effort on defense, and get his passing back into shape then this team will be a threat to average 130 points per game. Meanwhile, Irving just needs to play. When he has played this season he has looked good. Through seven games he has shooting splits of 50/42/100. These stats are almost certainly going to decline, particularly those second two, but his shooting this season has been undeniable. Kyrie’s defense has also been above average this season.
The Nets legitimately have all of the pieces in place to go from title contender in the East to title frontrunner in the NBA. This team at full strength and full mental stability is as dangerous as it gets. Kevin Durant always wanted his own team, and that’s part of why he left Golden State because he knew it would always be Steph’s team. Well now KD has his very own superstar-laden team. Kyrie is not a number one and Harden wants no part of being the number one anymore, he made that abundantly clear. Durant now has to pull the troops together and get these guys on the same page in a winning mentality. James Harden and Kyrie Irving will never be talked about as top ten players of all time, but Durant has that chance. It's time to do the thing top ten guys do to differentiate themselves and prove that he is indeed the winner that we all think he is. I have never seen a team with this much talent bursting at the seams, yet with such a high chance to fall flat on its face. The real difference in this team will come down to if Durant can make himself the alpha of this team and be the engine that propels this team towards a title collision with the Lakers.
Oh and The Rockets traded Caris LeVert and a second-round pick to the Pacers for Victor Oladipo. Both teams win that trade. Isn’t the NBA so much fun?