The NBA world was rocked just after 1 a.m. ET on Thursday morning, with news that the Nets had agreed to a deal to send Kevin Durant to the Suns for a package of players and four first-round draft picks. One notable NBA player was ready for the moment on Twitter: Cavaliers center Robin Lopez.
Two years ago, the Nets traded for then-Rockets guard James Harden, adding the former MVP to a roster that already boasted Durant and Kyrie Irving. Injuries derailed the team’s title hopes in 2021, and Irving’s refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19—costing him significant time early in the 2021–22 season—was reportedly a factor in Harden’s trade request ahead of last year’s trade deadline. He was dealt to the 76ers for a package with Ben Simmons as the centerpiece.
With Irving being traded to the Mavericks, and now KD on his way to Phoenix, all three members of that talented triumvirate are gone. Leave it to the fun-loving Lopez to come up with perfect Muppets-based simile for the situation.
“This is just like that time in Muppets Take Manhattan when the Muppets, after unsuccessfully attempting to take Manhattan, split up and leave Manhattan,” he wrote at 2:45 a.m. ET.
Without the Muppets in Brooklyn, the Nets have a deep, intriguing-if-starless roster that features rising young players such as Cam Thomas, Mikal Bridges and Nic Claxton as well as potential trade pieces like Royce O’Neale, Jae Crowder, Seth Curry and Joe Harris, as they now look to jump-start another rebuild.
