When taking stock of the Brooklyn Nets and whatever the hell has taken place within the organization over the last 31 months, it feels fair to invoke the poem “Ozymandias,” which became a part of broader pop culture after Breaking Bad gave a key episode that same name back in 2013.
The poem itself, an 1818 work by Percy Bysshe Shelley, describes a wrecked statue in a vast desert, and is meant to illustrate the downfall of an overly arrogant, once-powerful juggernaut. But forcing that poetic fit—much like the Nets forced their on-court one between Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden—overlooks the fact that Brooklyn never managed to win it all. (Hell, the club never even won the Eastern Conference.) That Big Three was as fleeting as it was dominant; an otherworldly talented group that absolutely shined when it played together—but also one that was unnecessary from the jump, as the Nets already had boatloads of talent and drama prior to bringing Harden to Brooklyn.
Through the first 13 games of last season, which predated Harden’s time as a Net, the club already ranked sixth in offensive efficiency. And that was with Irving having missed six of those contests. Durant was an elite offense by himself, while Durant and Irving were a basketball version of Bonnie and Clyde. Harden was supposed to add a layer of inevitability; someone who could give Brooklyn a solid chance even if the Big Three suddenly became a Big Two due to a significant injury. (The Nets almost pulled this off last postseason, nearly beating eventual NBA champion Milwaukee after Irving got injured and Harden played through a bad hamstring tweak.)
