Over this past weekend, the Brooklyn Nets added yet another stellar piece in center LaMarcus Aldridge to an already loaded roster. This was just a few days after Aldridge and the San Antonio Spurs reached a buyout agreement, as the team was unable to come to terms before the trade deadline expired.
The circumstances are a little confounding. The Spurs are very much in the thick of postseason contention, and Aldridge can still very much contribute to any NBA roster. Plus, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made it abundantly clear that Aldridge was a model citizen for the organization. If that is the case, why would the parties want to part ways? Looking at this on a macro-level, the concept of lack of parity in the NBA has never been more apparent.
The top-six active players in career points are LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and LaMarcus Aldridge.
Three of those six players are members of the Nets.
If you factor in Blake Griffin and Kyrie Irving, the Nets have five of the top-25 active scorers. Here’s how that compares to each top team in their respective conference: the Philadelphia 76ers are currently atop the Eastern Conference, and have just one player -- center Dwight Howard, who is well past his prime -- in the top-25 among active career scorers. The Utah Jazz, the best team in the Western Conference and NBA, also have just one player ranked in the top-25 in Mike Conley Jr., who just makes the cut at No. 24 on the list.
The last five NBA regular season MVP's have been Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant. Two of those MVP's are on the Nets, and Durant and Harden are still very much in their prime. To have one MVP on any given roster is rare, but to have two is improbable.
The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics have a combined 17 NBA titles. The last Laker to win an MVP award was Kobe Bryant, which was 13 years ago. The last Celtic to win an MVP was Larry Bird, who accomplished this 34 years ago. The New York Knicks, which have been around since the NBA's inaugural season in 1946, have been to eight NBA Finals, and their last MVP was Willis Reed, who received the award over 50 years ago. Shaquille O'Neal wasn't even born yet.
We've heard of NBA Big Threes, but how about an NBA Big Six? The Nets have six players that have been selected to an All-Star team in their careers. They have five players that have made the All-Star game at least six times. Durant has made 11, Harden has made nine, Aldridge and Irving have made seven, Griffin has made six, and DeAndre Jordan has made one. For those keeping track at home, that's a combined 41 All-Star appearances. The total combined All-Star appearances for the Eastern Conference's top seeded Sixers is 15, and for the NBA’s best Utah Jazz, their total of combined All-Star selections is a whopping five.
The Nets also happen to have three players in Durant, Harden, and Jordan who have made an All-NBA First team -- that's happened as recently as last season. The Sixers have just one player in the aforementioned Howard who has made an All-NBA First team, and that was nearly a decade ago. The Jazz have zero players that have made an All-NBA First team -- in fact, they have just one player that has made any All-NBA team. The Nets have six players that have made an All-NBA team. For even more context, let’s examine the Nets' roster and compare it to another playoff contender, the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets are currently fifth in the East and just half a game out of having home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The players on Charlotte's roster also have zero All-NBA selections, and just one All-Star appearance.
The incredible numbers and body of work for these Nets superstars don’t just apply to the regular season -- they extend all the way to the NBA Finals. In the last 15 years, there have been three players that have had multiple games of at least 19 points at age 22 or younger in the Finals. They are LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. But James and Leonard have something that Harden doesn't, and that's multiple NBA Finals MVP awards. Don’t worry, Nets fans. Harden may not have that award, but guess who does? His teammate, Durant! The Nets also have another NBA Finals hero in Irving. By the age of 25, Irving had already put up multiple 40-point games in the NBA Finals, and just four other players in NBA history have accomplished that feat. Those four other names -- Jerry West, Dwyane Wade, George Mikan, and Rick Barry -- are no-doubt-about-it Top-50 players in the history of the sport.
The Nets have set themselves apart from the NBA, in terms of overall talent. It's clearly visible that not even the best NBA teams, record-wise, come within the realm of talent that the Nets currently have. Some fans want to see dominance in sports, top talent tagging with other top talent. Some fans want to see a championship being earned organically and methodically, rather than with superstar friends deciding to join forces and bandwagon their way to a championship. The NBA purists will certainly be disappointed if this Nets franchise wins the 2021 title. But what all fans must agree on, though, is that we've never seen a roster this stacked in NBA history. Anything short of a title for the Nets this season would be the ultimate disappointment.
CBS Sports Radio producer David Shepard is a former ESPN researcher, a former Division I college basketball practice player, and the host of The Good Shepard YouTube channel. Follow him on Twitter @TheGoodShepard_.