Nets are worthy favorites
Durant, Harden and Irving have Brooklyn looking like the team to beat
Informed recently that his Brooklyn Nets might be solidifying their position as the NBA’s “villains,” Steve Nash let out a mock roar for the cameras. The rookie coach’s guttural yelp wasn’t scaring anyone: He didn’t quite go deep enough, and his self-effacing smile gave him away.
Nash’s upgraded roster, though, is a different story entirely, as it has prompted consternation from rival fan bases, posted the most efficient offense in league history and led oddsmakers to install Brooklyn as the new championship favorites. What’s more, the Nets’ hyperactive makeover has helped Kevin Durant and company answer many of the questions that swirled early in the season.
James Harden’s arrival in a January blockbuster was the obvious turning point, but reinforcements have arrived in waves for months. Durant and Kyrie Irving returned from season-long injuries in December. Guards Bruce Brown and Landry Shamet were scooped up in preseason trades, sharpshooter Joe Harris re-signed last fall on a long-term contract, veteran forward Jeff Green joined up as a free agent and center Nic Claxton returned ready for a larger role after a quiet rookie year. Then Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, a pair of former all-star forwards, landed in Brooklyn to ring chase after contract buyouts.
The remade Nets now look nothing like the team that was swept out of the first round last year, and they have far more talent and better positional balance than they did entering the season. General Manager Sean Marks is a shoo-in for Executive of the Year, overseeing Brooklyn’s rise from a 35-37 record last year to an East-leading
36-16 record through Friday.
Before their makeover, the Nets were a nit-picker’s dream: Their stars faced serious health concerns, their chemistry was unproven, their coach was inexperienced, their frontcourt had a big hole in the middle, their defense was wretched and their rebounding wasn’t up to snuff.
One by one, Brooklyn has dispatched with most of those concerns. Chemistry was instant. Durant, Harden and Irving have looked masterful when they have shared the court, and they have effortlessly picked up the slack during each other’s absences. The proof is in their eye-popping offensive stats: The Nets’ 117.5 offensive rating is the best mark ever, they have topped 130 points a league-leading 10 times this season and their three stars are all averaging more than 25 points per game.
It looks comically easy on some nights. Take Wednesday’s blowout win over the New Orleans Pelicans, Durant’s first action in nearly two months due to a hamstring injury. Despite Harden sitting out and a rehabbing Durant coming off the bench midway through the second quarter, the Nets piled up 139 points so quickly that their starters rested down the stretch. Durant had 17 points on just five shots, barely breaking a sweat. Irving turned in his nowstandard nightly dribbling mix tape and Aldridge had 22 points.
Brooklyn has shown some teeth in tight games, too. Nash needed some time to settle into his new job, and the Nets missed opportunities and squandered leads in the season’s first month. Harden’s arrival as a dual-threat scorer and passer solved many of those issues and now Brooklyn has the league’s second-best record (23-7) in games that are within five points in the last five minutes.
Meanwhile, the Nets’ defense still isn’t good, but it’s now good enough to win a title if their offensive dominance holds up in the playoffs. While Brooklyn ranks 25th in defensive efficiency on the season, it has jumped to 14th since the all-star break. Similarly, the Nets have improved to 13th in rebound rate since the break.
The crucial difference is that Nash now has options inside. Rather than being forced to rely heavily on DeAndre Jordan or to utilize smaller lineups with Durant or Green at center, Brooklyn now toggles between Claxton’s mobility, Aldridge’s length and Griffin’s floor spacing. All three have found success in narrowed roles around Brooklyn’s stars, much to the chagrin of those who balked at the idea of Aldridge and Griffin signing for the minimum after buyouts.
“It’s kind of funny to me, because for the last couple years all I’ve heard is how bad I am,” Griffin said last month. “And you sign with this team, and everybody is like, ‘That’s not fair.’ People say whatever they want.”
Like a snarling Nash, Griffin seemed to relish his “Who me?” retort. No one should be fooled by the transparent deflection. Nash, assistant coach Mike D’Antoni, Harden, Griffin and Aldridge are all united in the pursuit of their first championships, and that’s only the beginning when it comes to chips on shoulders. Durant is trying to prove he can win a title without Stephen Curry, Irving is trying to prove he can win one without LeBron James and the Nets are trying to win their first NBA title after spending their entire existence in the shadow of the New York Knicks.
The most significant remaining question is whether Durant, Harden and Irving will all be able to remain healthy for a deep postseason run. The trio has logged just 186 minutes together in seven games, and Harden is expected to miss at least another week with a hamstring strain. That doesn’t leave much time to jell before the start of the playoffs in mid-May.
Even so, Brooklyn’s path is shaping up nicely, especially if it can maintain the East’s top seed. Doing so would set up a first-round series against an opponent that would likely have a losing record, and it would force the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers — the East’s other two powers — into a secondround showdown.
With the Miami Heat slow to make a late-season push and the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors both falling off hard, the Nets would enjoy heavy advantages in talent and experience no matter which opponent they draw in the second round. That could theoretically translate to rest and wear-andtear advantages by the time the conference finals roll around. Out West, LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers have slipped in the standings because of injuries and figure to have a significantly more difficult road to the Finals.
Of course, no one knows better than Durant how quickly things can change. A pair of injuries sidelined him for the 2019 playoffs, costing his Golden State Warriors an excellent shot at a title. This year, he’s been sidelined twice because of the league’s coronavirus protocols, in addition to his hamstring absence. If mental weight has accumulated along the way, it hasn’t shown in his play. His first shot Wednesday was a silky jumper and he moved with his typical grace despite the many new faces around him.
“You’ve got veteran players that know how to play,” Durant said. “It feels like these guys can finish my sentence before I even finish it. These guys know the game inside-out. They know me. They know one another as teammates and from playing each other over the years. It was smooth.”