The Nets acquired eight-time All-Star and 2018 NBA MVP James Harden in a blockbuster deal Wednesday afternoon. This is awful news for Boston Celtics fans and fans of any Eastern Conference team.
Here is the complete breakdown of the trade:
Brooklyn decided a while ago to build around Durant and Kyrie and this is the price to pay to keep both happy while acquiring a former MVP. The Nets now have three of the top eight players in the Eastern Conference and arguably two of the top three guys in Durant and Harden.
"That's way too much to give up for James Harden"
Wait, I thought you needed elite talent to win NBA titles. Brooklyn gave up first-round picks in 2022, 2024, 2026 with pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027. These picks, especially over the next three seasons, will likely be in the 22-30 range. You gonna get a superstar or major starter in that spot? No chance.
Brooklyn is essentially punting on 2024 to 2027 to win now. You don't really need first-round picks when you have the ability to get veterans at a bargain price.
Every veteran player that is released or on the market will want to go to Brooklyn now, just like Miami was able to get cheap veterans during their championship run like Eddie House, James Jones, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Carlos Arroyo, Jamal Magloire, Juwan Howard, etc.
I expect the same for the Nets. They probably won't be peaking in 2021 with no offseason to build the roster around Brooklyn's new "Big 3", especially with Spencer Dinwiddie being out for the season with a torn ACL. Durant, Kyrie and Harden are all signed in Brooklyn through this season and next with all three having player options for the 2022-23 season.
This can go one of two ways:
1) extremely well with an NBA Championship or Championships Or 2) three egomanics wanting to kill each other.
Nobody on my radio show -- Glenn Ordway, Lou Merloni and Christian Fauria -- believes it will work out in Brooklyn. They believe, like many of you, that it will be a dumpster fire. But here's why it will work:
This is the best chance all three guys (Durant, Kyrie, Harden) will have to win a title going forward. There won't be a better situation for these guys for the rest of their careers. I know many people do not like Kyrie or Harden, but do you really think these elite players will throw away the prime of their careers to continue acting like boobs? I do not.
"What has James Harden won?!"
You damn well know that answer is nothing. And you damn well know basketball is a team game. Antoine Walker told OMF just a few weeks ago that you can't win long-term with Harden.
The insistence on using the lack of a team accomplishment to say you can't win with Harden is baffling to me. He has never played on a team with legitimate title expectations like this since he left Oklahoma City.
He is not "poison" as so many want to believe. Until today, you didn't hear a bad word about Harden as a teammate.
"He dribbles too much! They don't have enough basketballs to go around in Brooklyn."
● Ranked second, second, first and fifth in the past four seasons in PER, player efficiency rating.
● No. 1 in the league in points off pull up jumpers at (11.8) last season.
● Tied for 14th in passes per game (57.8) last season.
● Second in the NBA in points off drives per game (12.4), just behind Luka Doncic (12.9).
● First in overall win shares (13.1), an estimate of the number of wins contributed by the player.
● Tied for 18th in the NBA in offensive rating (114.0), a metric that summarizes a player's efficiency. Jayson Tatum was 16th at (114.2) last season.
Every single night, James is the No. 1 target for coaches' defensive game-plan. Traps, double teams, box and ones. You name it, Harden has seen it and still dominated NBA defenses.
While Harden has had some ugly playoff moments (see 2017 Western Conference Semifinals Game 6 vs San Antonio), did you really expect Harden's Rockets to get through the elite teams in the Western Conference?
Are we really knocking Harden for not being able to beat Durant and Russell Westbrook's Thunder, Damian Lillard and Lamarcus Aldridge's Trail Blazers, the Golden State Warriors dynasty or most recently the 2019-20 Champions in the Los Angeles Lakers?
Those were all really good, if not great teams, that the Rockets were sent home by.
That's kind of like blaming Derrick Rose for his Bulls team being unable to beat LeBron's Heat or Cleveland Cavalier teams.
"So you really expect Kyrie to stop being weird and return to the Nets?!"
Yes, he will return. No, he will always be weird. I don't know what is truly making Kyrie stay away from the Nets right now. When he returns, he joins the NBA's most talented team.
You may be laughing at the Nets right now. But I believe we will look back on Jan. 13, 2021 as the day the Eastern Conference title window shut for teams like the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat, and yes, your Boston Celtics for the next 2-3 seasons.
