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Checking in on NBA - Brooklyn Trade, etc

To be clear not for or against their success, or making predictions.

The Miami Heat did get to the finals year 1, they also had solid defenders Chalmers, Battier, and Haslem.... even the starting C that year people don't remember Joel Anthony was a big time defensive player.

I do see Brooklyn countering here with Green, Jordan, Harris - good players....I don't know if they play the kind of D the trio above played though... but these 3 do know how to play for sure.

Not reading too much into these initial games especially with Durant sitting one of them and Irving for sure rusty, and the games not meaning all that much right now either.... just wondering about the ability to D as others pointed out, I don't think they've made their final roster move for the season. They could find a perimeter defender or maybe groom the young kid Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Bruce Brown knows how to play too.

Looking forward to it!

They aren’t as good defensively as that Miami team but they are much better offensively. They are going to be tough to beat in a 7 game series. Bucks and Lakers are the toughest matchups for them
 
Thats the exact same thing people said about Miami and then they won the East four times in a row and won 2 titles. Brooklyn will be in a similar position when it’s all said and done
Agree to disagree. They’re no better than the top 3-4 in the East. Could go either way for em. Bounced in round 2 wouldn’t be a surprise. All we can do now is wait.
 
Agree to disagree. They’re no better than the top 3-4 in the East. Could go either way for em. Bounced in round 2 wouldn’t be a surprise. All we can do now is wait.

This reminds me of the people who argued the Warriors would be worse when they signed Kevin Durant
 
Who actually said that? Sounds like you’re making things up now. Ha.

That isn't new with him.

I agree with your point about the Nets. They are a Top 2-4 team in the East.

Like what I said in the beginning. This should be about how does Brooklyn match up with Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, Milwaukee and Miami.

East is getting a lot tougher at least. Maybe 4-6 great teams again.
 
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Many people. Same ideas as now. Too many good players

Golden State were NBA champions. Actually were coming off the greatest regular season in NBA history.
Two different things.

Two different teams.
I have expressed my respect for Draymond Green on here numerous times....
Nets don't have a Draymond Green.

They have two of the most efficient scorers in the NBA and Kyrie.
The Harden/Kyrie thing will decide where they are at because both are very ball dominant.
Only one ball on the court.

Klay/Curry work because they play off of each other.
Neither need the ball all the time to be dangerous because of how well they move without the ball.
 
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Golden State were NBA champions. Actually were coming off the greatest regular season in NBA history.
Two different things.

Two different teams.
I have expressed my respect for Draymond Green on here numerous times....
Nets don't have a Draymond Green.

They have two of the most efficient scorers in the NBA and Kyrie.
The Harden/Kyrie thing will decide where they are at because both are very ball dominant.
Only one ball on the court.

Klay/Curry work because they play off of each other.
Neither need the ball all the time to be dangerous because of how well they move without the ball.
Yep. Was an awful comparison. Comparing Durant joining the best team (record-wise) ever vs Harden joining the fvcking Nets. 😂

Meanwhile, Bam is having the game of his life. Feasting on those Brooklyn “bigs.”
 
ETakes everything away when we already have two teams penciled in...
Like the Warriors and Cleveland

Great post. I can’t see what’s intriguing about the nba in years where we basically know what teams will play in the finals, just like GS vs Cavs 3x in a row.
 
Great post. I can’t see what’s intriguing about the nba in years where we basically know what teams will play in the finals, just like GS vs Cavs 3x in a row.

NBA has 6 legit NBA cities. Maybe 7 if you want to throw Toronto in there

Bay Area
LA
Chicago
Philly
NY
Boston

Good to have all of them contending for a NBA Championship

We should be talking about Brooklyn vs Philly or Brooklyn vs Boston
Knicks suck as well as the Bulls right now. But the NBA would be better if they were great as well.

That is how it was in the 80's and 90's for the most part
 
Sadly there aren’t gonna be 6-7 great teams every year when the players would rather team up with one another than try to beat each other.

And while I don’t necessarily disagree with what your saying, I think it sucks for the small market teams. Why even have franchises in smaller markets if the nba and the players just want to prop up/play in the bigger cities.
 
Sadly there aren’t gonna be 6-7 great teams every year when the players would rather team up with one another than try to beat each other.
That has always been the NBA for the most part.
We can go through the history and see the players moving on to bigger NBA cities.

The West has less teams at the top. Most likely will be a 2-3 team battle again
The East isn't. Just look at Miami. As of right now I don't see a for sure team
Could be Milwaukee, Boston, Brooklyn or Philadelphia
Possibly Miami can get back into it

But the 80's wasn't a bunch of teams.
Boston and then Detroit dominated a lot of the 1980's
LA Lakers did in the West.


You had the promotion of good playoff series

Like what we saw with Boston and Toronto last year
LA Clippers and Denver
 
Thats What hurts the nba imo, lack of parity/too predictable.

I get it some people will watch regardless. I just can’t get invested much knowing it’s always gonna be the same handful of teams winning and the same handful have stayed seemingly terrible for decades on end like Sacramento or Minnesota, who have only had a couple of good teams a piece in my lifetime.
 
Thats What hurts the nba imo, lack of parity/too predictable.

I get it some people will watch regardless. I just can’t get invested much knowing it’s always gonna be the same handful of teams winning and the same handful have stayed seemingly terrible for decades on end like Sacramento or Minnesota, who have only had a couple of good teams a piece in my lifetime.

Promotion of it.

NBA has always lacked parity

But it is now being promoted. Just stupid

Why the hell are these people already talking about Lakers vs Brooklyn
 
Well I mean imo the lakers are gonna be there unless ad or lebron get injured.

obv yes the East is a little more mirky. Nets love is probably just bc ppl love that shiny new toy. We will see how it plays out. They are Russel Westbrook and lebron away from having the top 5 most hated superstars on the same team imo, so I can’t buy that their hype is just based from Durant/Kyrie/harden fanboys, dunno how many “fans” those three still have.
 
Sadly there aren’t gonna be 6-7 great teams every year when the players would rather team up with one another than try to beat each other.

And while I don’t necessarily disagree with what your saying, I think it sucks for the small market teams. Why even have franchises in smaller markets if the nba and the players just want to prop up/play in the bigger cities.
No doubt much of this is true, but occasionally you'll get teams like Cleveland or Detroit who break the party. Maybe Milwaukee. SA of course had a long run and doubt anyone wants to face them early in the playoffs this season.

Those other teams need either some serious lottery luck or to get lucky with a later pick (Giannis).

Cavs FO/owner a lot of crap from their fans, but seems unfounded to me. Won a title I never thought I'd see and owner did everything he could financially to win more even in this market. Hell, if not for some incredible timing by a cap spike for GS maybe they would have won more.

as for where they are now, I don't really see more they could have done. Pretty sure Lebron was leaving regardless and unlike in the past with Lebron and Kyrie the lottery has not been our friend. Made the best of where they have picked. Could say should have taken SGA, but Sexton a fine pick.
 
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Blake Griffin gonna be on the move. Not sure how much he's got left but gonna be interesting to see where he ends up. Davis for LA may be hurt, not sure how badly.
 
Nets were 7-6 before the Harden trade and they are 21-7 since the trade (#1 in the East over that time). Turns out adding great players doesn't make your team worse.

BuT tOo MaNy PeRsOnAliTiEs

OnLy OnE bAsKeTbAlL
 
Nets were 7-6 before the Harden trade and they are 21-7 since the trade (#1 in the East over that time). Turns out adding great players doesn't make your team worse.

BuT tOo MaNy PeRsOnAliTiEs

OnLy OnE bAsKeTbAlL

Also noteworthy that Durant has been out. GSW used to post better records in the regular season for stretches when he would go down.
 
I have no idea what point you’re trying to make.

GSW was not better without Durant. There's a reason they made the move. Cleveland was about to keep beating them until they brought in KD. They got lucky in their first title with Kyrie and Love getting hurt.

Some regular season games isn't going to change that. Heck the team went 73-9 but couldn't win 4 games vs. LeBron and Kyrie when they needed to.

That's why it's not noteworthy that GSW did better without Durant. It's stupid to imply they were better without him. They weren't.
 
GSW was not better without Durant. There's a reason they made the move. Cleveland was about to keep beating them until they brought in KD. They got lucky in their first title with Kyrie and Love getting hurt.

Some regular season games isn't going to change that. Heck the team went 73-9 but couldn't win 4 games vs. LeBron and Kyrie when they needed to.

That's why it's not noteworthy that GSW did better without Durant. It's stupid to imply they were better without him. They weren't.

Cool. I didn’t imply any of that. I said that GSW frequently had better regular season stretches when Durant was out.

The playoffs are totally different from the regular season. Bench shrinks. Game plans are more detailed, nuanced, and better executed. Durability and endurance matter a lot.

The Nets performing well in the regular season is cool. And Durant being out might be helping some of that because it allows Harden to do what he does best, which is win regular season games.

Come playoff time, if they don’t have all three fully healthy, they have no chance at a title. And I doubt they will have all three full healthy for the full playoff run.
 
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Cool. I didn’t imply any of that. I said that GSW frequently had better regular season stretches when Durant was out.

The playoffs are totally different from the regular season. Bench shrinks. Game plans are more detailed, nuanced, and better executed. Durability and endurance matter a lot.

The Nets performing well in the regular season is cool. And Durant being out might be helping some of that because it allows Harden to do what he does best, which is win regular season games.

Come playoff time, if they don’t have all three fully healthy, they have no chance at a title. And I doubt they will have all three full healthy for the full playoff run.

Right, it’s easier for the Nets to win without Durant out. I agree they need to be healthy for the playoffs but that’s true with any contender and has nothing to do with the trade
 
Right, it’s easier for the Nets to win without Durant out. I agree they need to be healthy for the playoffs but that’s true with any contender and has nothing to do with the trade

The relevance to the specific trade is that they now have multiple key players who are known injury risks. Kevin Durant simply isn’t the same guy he was in 2017. Neither is Kyrie.

The Nets are engaging in a highly risky strategy due to the lack of durability for their main guys.
 
The relevance to the specific trade is that they now have multiple key players who are known injury risks. Kevin Durant simply isn’t the same guy he was in 2017. Neither is Kyrie.

The Nets are engaging in a highly risky strategy due to the lack of durability for their main guys.

The trade didn’t bring in either of those guys. If anything the trade will allow them to engage in load management of Kyrie and Durant and still be at the top of the East.

It’s your opinion that these guys aren’t good enough to compete for a championship anymore. I’ll wait and see in the playoffs. I don’t buy that at all
 
The trade didn’t bring in either of those guys. If anything the trade will allow them to engage in load management of Kyrie and Durant and still be at the top of the East.

It’s your opinion that these guys aren’t good enough to compete for a championship anymore. I’ll wait and see in the playoffs. I don’t buy that at all

**I think they are not durable enough, nor the right specific combo of players, to win a title. Not that they aren’t talented enough.
 
**I think they are not durable enough, nor the right specific combo of players, to win a title. Not that they aren’t talented enough.

I guess we will find out. Injuries can strike out any point but if they can keep this core together for a few seasons, I’d be shocked if they don’t win a title
 
I guess we will find out. Injuries can strike out any point but if they can keep this core together for a few seasons, I’d be shocked if they don’t win a title

But you’re missing the point. Injuries don’t strike everyone the same percentage. This isn’t roulette. Some people are more durable than others. Period.

Joel Embiid is less durable than Lebron. John Wall is less durable than Dame Lillard. And when guys have significant injuries like an Achilles rupture, that drastically impacts the rest of the body. We know that to be true. Kevin Durant simply isn’t the same guy he was in 2017. And he never will be.

And 2-3 years from now him and Kyrie will be even less of the players they once were.
 
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But you’re missing the point. Injuries don’t strike everyone the same percentage. This isn’t roulette. Some people are more durable than others. Period.

Joel Embiid is less durable than Lebron. John Wall is less durable than Dame Lillard. And when guys have significant injuries like an Achilles rupture, that drastically impacts the rest of the body. We know that to be true. Kevin Durant simply isn’t the same guy he was in 2017. And he never will be.

And 2-3 years from now him and Kyrie will be even less of the players they once were.

Injuries aren't random but you also don't have psychic powers that allow you to know if a player is going to be injured again. There have been plenty of players who have recovered from injuries and continued to be great players. You are the one assuming that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving won't be able to play at a high level consistently and I'm not making that assumption.

Besides, your original post's critique was about playing styles. If anything, Harden and Kyrie have flourished together. The "playing styles" and "personality" critique is as silly today as it was the day you made it. Everyone realizes they will need to avoid major injuries but unless you visited a fortune teller recently, your "guess" doesn't really mean much.
 
Talk to me in two or three months and we’ll see about Brooklyn. Too many mouths to feed and Kyrie hasn’t been held accountable since he left Bron. Wanted to become his own man, and what a weirdo he became. Not sold at all on Brooklyn. Harden also won’t last long playing second fiddle imo.

It's been two months and Brooklyn has the best record in the East since the trade...
 
Injuries aren't random but you also don't have psychic powers that allow you to know if a player is going to be injured again. There have been plenty of players who have recovered from injuries and continued to be great players. You are the one assuming that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving won't be able to play at a high level consistently and I'm not making that assumption.

Besides, your original post's critique was about playing styles. If anything, Harden and Kyrie have flourished together. The "playing styles" and "personality" critique is as silly today as it was the day you made it. Everyone realizes they will need to avoid major injuries but unless you visited a fortune teller recently, your "guess" doesn't really mean much.

They have proven anything today. They’ve won some regular season games while Durant is out. BFD. Nothing is changed today compared to when this happened.

And yes, some injuries are different than others. Name a guy who has recovered from a ruptured Achilles to come back and be the same or better player as he was before.
 
They have proven anything today. They’ve won some regular season games while Durant is out. BFD. Nothing is changed today compared to when this happened.

And yes, some injuries are different than others. Name a guy who has recovered from a ruptured Achilles to come back and be the same or better player as he was before.

If I'm being honest, they maybe able to win the East without Durant. Kyrie and Harden are playing at that high of a level. Obviously Durant's health is they key to their chances vs. the Lakers. But the James Harden trade has obviously made them a more legitimate contender, that's not really even debatable anymore.

Kevin Durant is such a great scorer, even if you only get 90% of what he used to be, you have an elite player. And you really only need him for the playoff push. I like those chances.
 
The big 3 in Brooklyn is a terrible match of personalities and playing styles. Two years ago when Durant and Kyrie both went to Brooklyn I said those two wouldn’t play 100 games together for the Nets. I still feel that way. I think the number is at like 7 right now?

Harden folds in the playoffs. Kyrie is bat shit crazy and injury prone. Durant has not previously shown the ability to carry other non-MVP players to a title, and he’s also injury prone.

Have to pat myself on the back for this one. Nets were a train wreck waiting to happen. By the way, I think the total number of games played by those three together was like 16 lol.
 
I guess we will find out. Injuries can strike out any point but if they can keep this core together for a few seasons, I’d be shocked if they don’t win a title

Could barely keep the trio of immature, ball dominant players together for 12 months.
 
Could barely keep the trio of immature, ball dominant players together for 12 months.

Kyries behavior really soured things. I still think it would have worked on the court but the combination of personalities and some unfortunate circumstances made it not come to fruition. I don’t think the Harden trade is necessarily bad for the Nets though. They got a solid shooter and a great defender, which they needed badly.

On paper, it’s a very good lineup but too many questions around Kyrie and Simmons for now.
 
Seems like they shoulda tried to shop kyrie to somewhere that doesnt require him to be vaxxed to play home games 🤷‍♂️

I just cant respect ben simmons anymore, the way he handled himself through all his bs was super immature and selfish imo. Pampered punk
 
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