So, the Brooklyn Nets have won 10 in a row and 14 of 15. The offense has been awesome at 1st in the league over the last 15 games and the defense is 10th over that same stretch. 14-1 over the last 15 games with wins over the Warriors and Bucks at home and in Cleveland and in Atlanta over the past 4 games. This feels real but the Nets also feel like a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
The Nets starting 5 of Kyrie Irving, Royce O’Neale, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and Nic Claxton has been good this season with an offensive rating of 114.9 and a defensive rating of 111.7 giving them a net rating of 3.2. That’s a good unit, not great, but good, the concern is the lack of shooting with Claxton and Simmons. If you replace Simmons with Joe Harris (a career 43.5% percent 3 point shooter), they have a net rating of 10.0, if you replace Claxton for Harris the net rating is 8.8. In 288 minutes together, Simmons and Claxton have a net rating of 4.8 but if you take just one of Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving on the court with the duo, the net rating drops to -1.0 in 70 minutes. The lack of shooting makes it hard to play both without two of the greatest iso scorers in NBA history. The rest of the roster is littered with shooting however. Joe Harris and Seth Curry are two of the elite shooters the NBA has and offseason additions Royce O’Neale and Yuta Watanabe are both shooting above 40% from 3 point range on the season. T.J. Warren is another offseason addition and matches the type of player Brooklyn sought after in free agency, big wings who can defend and shoot. O’Neale and Watanabe fit that mold perfectly and as Warren gets healthier, he missed each of the past 2 seasons due to injury, he too should become a key member of Brooklyn’s roster. I am worried about the center depth, as Day’Ron Sharpe and Claxton are the only two true centers on the roster, with Simmons playing a lot of center himself. This is a good basketball team, how do they stack up in the East?
To me, there are 2 tiers of contenders in the East. The Celtics and the Bucks are in the top tier and the Nets, Cavs, and Sixers are in the 2nd tier (the Heat are lurking). The Nets are currently 2nd in the East after the 10 game winning streaking, including a 18 point win over the Bucks last week. If nothing goes haywire, a big if when it comes to the Nets, I think they have the capability of competing to win the East. The two stars are so good and so big time in big moments and the roster is well rounded enough where they could compete with Boston and Milwaukee. The Bucks need to get Khris Middleton back from injury as he provides the scoring spark that could separate Milwaukee so I would like to see him get healthy before I write off the Bucks but after an 9-0 start, the Bucks are 13-12 over their last 25 games, which is a big enough sample size to make you wonder if the drop off is real. The Celtics are a different animal. Since the start of 2022 the Celtics are 8-0 over the Nets, including a sweep in the playoffs last season where it was shown the Nets had no answer for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Celtics are long, athletic, and can really shoot the 3 ball and now with Robert Williams III returning to the lineup, it adds a whole new element to Boston on both sides of the ball with the lob threat and offensive rebounds to go along with the elite rim protection. Malcolm Brogdon is also new to the Celtics roster, and though he has struggled as of late, gives Boston another shooter and playmaker who can defend off of the bench, something Boston desperately needed last season. Not to mention they have last season’s Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart. Boston has proven to be a tough matchup for the Nets but Brooklyn has Kevin Durant on the roster, and he is one of the greatest players to ever live.
The 2nd overall pick of the 2007 NBA Draft, Kevin Durant has become one of the greatest players to ever lace ‘em up, I would even go as far to say top 10 all time. That is how good Durant has been and is. This season Kevin Durant is averaging 30 points per game, at age 34, in a career where he tore his achilles. Let’s go back to where it started, with the Oklahoma City Thunder. There was a lot of success, 3 trips to the Western Conference Finals, 1 trip to the NBA Finals, and a lot of good moments as well. Durant and Russell Westbrook were one of the elite duo’s in the sport but then in 2016 it all came crashing down as the Thunder blew a 3-1 series lead against the Warriors and lost the series. That summer Durant joined those very same Warriors and won 2 championships in 3 seasons with the team. However, Durant wanted to win on his own, prove the haters wrong who said he couldn’t win without Stephen Curry and the Warriors. As a result, Durant headed east to Brooklyn to join the Nets.
In Brooklyn, Durant teamed up with Kyrie Irving where they created one of the most dynamic duo’s the league has ever seen. After missing the entire 2019-20 season with a torn achilles, Durant returned in 2020-21, when the Nets traded for James Harden to create a big 3 of the likes people had never seen. Brooklyn finished as the 2nd seed and pounded the 7th seeded Boston Celtics in the first round. In round 2 came the Bucks and after splitting the first 4 games with injuries being suffered by both Irving and Harden, Durant had his toughest test yet, win 2 of the next 3 with Harden hampered with injuries and Irving out. In game 5, Durant delivered, scoring 49 points (on 16/23 from the field and 4-9 from 3), grabbing 17 rebounds, and dishing out 10 assists. It was and still is the greatest performance of Durant’s career and one of the greatest the league has ever seen. After the Bucks took game 6, the teams returned to Brooklyn for game 7 where Durant delivered again scoring 48 points (17/36 from the field and 4/11 from 3) with 9 rebounds and 6 assists. However, he needed 49 points as his toe was on the line on what would have been a game winning 3 point shot that was just a 2 and forced overtime. In overtime, Durant ran out of gas and the Nets lost 115-111 being outscored 6-2 in overtime. Last season, the Nets had a disastrous season, Harden forced his way out after Irving refused to get vaccinated which did not allow him to play in home games. The Nets finished 7th and were swept by the Celtics.
The Brooklyn Nets have been red hot and one reason to believe that it is real is that they have Kevin Durant on their team. One of the greatest players to ever play, Durnat is surrounded by a good team with a co-star in Kyrie Irving and good depth around them. However, the Eastern Conference is tough and the Nets will have to beat at least 2 elite teams to get to the Finals. The Brooklyn Nets have won 10 straight games, is this real and can they win a title or will they crash and burn like many think they will?
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