As my teammate Howard Beck mentioned in his column, there is plenty of blame to go around for Brooklyn’s wild flameout this season.
So much of it starts with Kyrie Irving’s … shot selection, so to speak. That, and the team’s wavering stance about whether Irving would be allowed to take a part-time stance as he chose not to get vaccinated, seemingly bled into Harden’s reasoning for wanting out of Brooklyn while Durant was injured. And then after Harden was moved for Simmons, Simmons in turn failed to play a single second for the Nets this season. Nash wasn’t dealt a great hand, but he was slow to adjust in the series against Boston. Then there is Brooklyn’s management, which employs (or employed) all of those folks, and made the choice to bring them in.
And while it is certainly not Durant’s fault that things played out the way they did—well, maybe some of it, since he started getting in his own head about Boston’s double teams until Game 5—I don’t think it’s too early to start wondering what his endgame is here.
Even if many of us were critical of Durant’s choice to leave the Thunder for a juggernaut like the Warriors, at least he was leaving for greener pastures, and positioning himself for multiple rings, with arguably the greatest collection of pro basketball talent we’ve ever seen, aside from the Dream Team. We’re obviously making use of considerable hindsight now, but if the goal back then was to win at the highest level, what was the rationale for leaving that for the Nets?
If it was to win, but to do so as the unquestioned top dog, we’re seeing now how complicated that can be, oftentimes for reasons outside of Durant’s control. Health was a factor in last year’s playoffs, leaving Brooklyn just shy against the eventual champion Bucks. And KD’s MCL injury—which he’s said “derailed” this season—was critical, given Irving’s stance on the vaccine, and the fact that Harden didn’t feel like doing the heavy lifting by himself.
Strong organizations give themselves the best chance to win year in, year out. The Nets had an organizational identity built largely on analytics, fundamentals and development, but pushed much of its organizational culture to the side after going all-in on Durant and Irving a few years ago. Kenny Atkinson was ousted; Steve Nash was brought into a plumb role despite having no head coaching experience, and shortly thereafter, Irving was talking about how he viewed coaching as a collaborative process, in which exactly who the coach was didn’t matter. (He made a somewhat similar comment Monday night following Brooklyn’s elimination, essentially saying that he and Durant are “managing this franchise together alongside” team owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks.) The move for Harden last season only deepened the club’s dependence on star power, even though the concept of a Big Three hasn’t paid off in the form of a title for a team since 2018, when Durant won his second ring with Golden State.
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With Durant set to turn 34 five months from now, it doesn’t feel like a safe bet to assume that he’ll be in perfect health from season to season anymore. And while Durant considers Irving a close friend, the hyperskilled guard may be the least reliable star in the NBA, one any club would have to think long and hard about before committing to in the form of a long-term contract.
Between that conundrum, the Simmons question, the questions about Nash and the flawed roster that fluctuates from being too small one moment but too big to shoot free throws well the next, is there any reason to think the Nets would be favored above the other teams in the improving Eastern Conference in the next three years? There’s no doubt that Brooklyn, at its best, is capable. But would you actively bet on the reliability of Irving for it all to happen?
Ever since we watched Durant leave Oklahoma City, people have speculated about what legacy he’d establish based on the unprecedented move. But oddly enough, the decision to leave behind a dynasty for whatever is happening in Brooklyn for now actually looks worse.
