The date is June 30th, 2019 and the Brooklyn Nets just hit the jackpot. After years of being one of the worst teams in the league and not having any of their draft picks, the Nets made the playoffs in 2019, after going 42-40. Though they were eliminated in 5 games in round one, Brooklyn was able to woo Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to their team. Even though they’d have to wait a year for Durant after he tore his achilles, the championship window was open and it was opened even wider when they were able to trade for James Harden. The big 3 was assembled, the window was wide open… but in this league, nothing is guaranteed.
The 2019-20 season was pretty uneventful, the Nets did fire their coach, Kenny Atkinson, and had Jacque Vaughn coach the team in the bubble, where the team was swept by the Raptors in the first round, a series that Irving did not play in. Kyrie didn’t seem too excited to play that season, only playing in 20 games due to various injuries and other reasons. He also said the players should leave the NBA and start their own league, so that was certainly interesting. That offseason, the team hired Steve Nash as head coach and Harden requested a trade out of Houston. The season started and on January 14th, the Nets were 7-6 and Kyrie wasn’t playing basketball again… for reasons that weren’t due to an injury. As a result, the Nets sent out Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, Tauren Prince, Rodions Kurucs, unprotected first round picks in 2022, 2024, and 2026, and first round pick swaps in 2021 (did not convey), 2023 (extremely unlikely to convey), 2025, and 2027 in a four team trade with the Rockets, Pacers, and Cavaliers, and in came James Harden (along with a 2024 second round pick). The big 3 were assembled and boy oh boy were they good.
That season Harden, Durant, and Irving had an offensive rating of 119.6 and a net rating of 7.2. Which would have been first (offensive rating) and second (net rating) in the league that season. The problem was they only played 202 minutes together, the trio that played the most amount of minutes in the league that season [Reggie Bullock, RJ Barrett, and Julius Randle (shoutout Thibs)] played 1,594 minutes together, 1,392 more minutes more than the Brooklyn trio. In the playoffs, they were even better, with an offensive rating of 135.4 and a net rating of 22.1, absolutely terrorizing the Boston Celtics, mopping up the Green Team in 5 games, they were absolutely that good. Then they played the Milwaukee Bucks and 43 seconds into game 1 James Harden re-aggravated a hamstring injury and missed the next 3 games. In game 4, Giannis Antetokounmpo landed on Irving’s ankle and forced Kyrie to miss the rest of the series. However, even with just 43 seconds with all three players on court, the series went to a game 7. That’s how incredible Kevin Durant was. Game 5 was, in my opinion, the best game of Durant’s career. He scored 49 points (including 20 points in the 4th quarter), grabbed 17 rebounds, dished out 10 assists, had 3 steals, and 2 blocks on shooting splits of .69/.44/.81 and played every single second of the game. He dragged the Nets back from a 16 point halftime deficit as the Nets won the game 114-108. In game 7, Durant put together another masterpiece with 48 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists playing 53 minutes as the game went to overtime. The game was in overtime because of Durant’s shoe size. You remember the moment and if you don’t YouTube it, it was an incredible shot by KD. However, the Nets season ended and they moved on to 2021-22.
The 2021-22 season was supposed to be awesome for Brooklyn, I picked them to win the championship in the preseason. However, it did not go that way, starting with Kyrie Irving refusing to get the vaccine making him ineligible to play in home games. As a result, the Nets decided to not have Irving report to the team. He missed the first 35 games of the season, but the Nets went 23-12 and were second in the east. Kyrie returned to the team on January 5th (only to play in road games) but Kevin Durant got hurt on January 15th. That’s when Brooklyn’s season fell apart. The Nets went 5-16 over the 21 game stretch that included an 11 game losing streak. When Durant went down the Nets were 27-15, 2nd in the conference, by the time he came back, they were 32-31, 8th in the conference. Not only were the Nets a disaster on the court but the entire franchise felt shockwaves when James Harden tried to force his way to Philadelphia. On February 10th, Harden got his wish as he and Paul Milsap were traded to the 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, a 2023 first round pick, and a protected 2027 first round pick. Irving was allowed to play in home games on March 23rd but by that point, the Nets season had been all but lost. Brooklyn finished 7th in the conference and after a win in the Play-In Tournament over the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn was swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round. Harden, Durant, and Irving played just 16 games together in their time in Brooklyn, a shockingly low amount.
On June 30th, 2019, Kevin Durant agreed to sign with the Nets, on June 30th, 2022, he asked for a trade. All summer, we talked about fake trades and where could Durant land, just for Durant to revoke the request and agree to play for the Nets in 2022-23. Thus, a new season began. Brooklyn started 2-6 so they fired Steve Nash, promoting Jacque Vaughn to interim head coach for a 2nd time. They stayed below .500 for the next month and were 9-11 after a loss to the Pacers on November 25th. Then the Nets started to get hot, winning 4 in a row before losing to Boston again, then winning 12 in a row making them 25-12 before losing to the Bulls, before winning 2 more games. They went 18-2 over a 20 game stretch and were starting to look like real title contenders before disaster struck again for Brooklyn as in the 18th win against the Heat, Durant got hurt again, in what would be his last game as a Brooklyn Net.
The Nets were 4-7 since the Durant injury when Kyrie Irving decided he wanted a trade because the Nets wouldn’t give him a new contract. He was traded to the Dallas Mavericks, along with Markieff Morris, for Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, and an unprotected 2029 first round pick. Then, a few days later, at 1 in the morning, Kevin Durant was traded, along with TJ Warren, to the Phoenix Suns, for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder (who was traded to the Bucks for two 2nd round picks), 4 unprotected first round picks on 2023, 2025, 2027, and 2029, and a pick swap in 2028. The Nets hit reset and they are starting a new path, without the superstars.
The Brooklyn Nets went all in with Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving and though it didn’t work, if you asked them if they would do it again, I bet they would. Championships are won with stars and those 3 guys are legit superstars and when they were on the court, they were just so good.
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