The Brooklyn Nets, an Eastern Conference NBA team, acquired Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant last season. These two NBA All Stars are normally able to dominate the league, but unfortunately Kevin Durant had to sit out the whole last season due to an achilles injury, and Kyrie Irving suffered a season-ending injury to the right shoulder and which eventually required surgery. Despite all that, the Nets still ended up making the postseason in the bubble. Losing in the first round to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Nets had much to look forward to knowing Irving and Durant would return for the next season.
For the 2020-2021 season, the Brooklyn Nets are finally healthy and potentially ready to contend for a NBA Championship. Along with these two superstars, the Nets came across another elite player in the NBA — James Harden. People may become quick to wonder if this new superteam is unfair, having three All Stars on one team, but having three All Stars may become a problem.
In past years, so-called superteams have come about, but this one appears like no other. The new big three comprises the accolade-filled Kyrie Irving, a former number one overall draft pick, a six-time All Star and also a NBA champion; Kevin Durant, another former number one overall draft pick, a two time NBA champion, a two time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, NBA Most Valuable Player, a four time NBA scoring champion, NBA Rookie of the Year and a ten time All Star; and, last but not least, James Harden, a two time NBA minutes leader, a NBA assists leader, a three time NBA scoring leader and a two time NBA three-point field goals leader.
With accomplishments like these between these three players, they seem unstoppable. Each player can score at ease, however and whenever. That being said, having all these All Stars on a team may affect the team’s chemistry or diminish a certain player from scoring the amount of points that they should be scoring. Kevin Durant and James Harden have played together on a team before with the Thunder, but adding Kyrie Irving in the mix may be a different story, and someone may end up having a lesser role.
The coach of the Nets, Steve Nash will have to come up with a gameplan to be able to involve all three of these All Stars and still be successful. The Eastern Conference is the weaker between the two conferences, so the Nets will have a great chance of winning the Eastern Conference finals if they are able to play with each other.
This super team has not been able to play much with each other yet, however, because of Kyrie Irving sitting out a couple of the games. Their first game together, Jan. 20 against the Cavaliers, did not end well for the Nets, with a score of 147-135 in favor of Cleveland in double OT. Harden played 51 minutes and had 21 points, Durant played 50 minutes and had 38 points, and Irving played 48 minutes and had 37 points. That was the first time they played together, so they have time to build some chemistry, but for now the super team begins 0-1 together.
