Brooklyn Nets Player With Most to Prove This Season
The Brooklyn Nets are ready to tip-off their 2019-2020 NBA season which brings as many expectations as it does question marks.
The Nets host the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight to begin one of the most anticipated season's in the history of the franchise.
The Nets had a busy off season where they signed Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, DeAndre Jordan, and acquired Taurean Prince in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks.
Some questions that will follow the Nets all throughout this season are: Is Head Coach Kenny Atkinson the right man to lead the Nets into this new era of basketball complete with the most expectations Atkinson has faced in his coaching career thus far? Another issue this Nets team will have to deal with is: Will Caris LeVert be able to stay healthy and build off his great 2018-2019 season?
While these are all questions the Nets will have to contend with this season, that is not the team's biggest question as they begin their season tonight.
The biggest question for the Nets this season is: How Far Will Kyrie Irving be able to take the Nets this year without Kevin Durant for the entire season?
Kyrie Irving comes to the Borough of Brooklyn after two up-and-down seasons playing for the Boston Celtics and Head Coach Brad Stevens. The Celtics acquired Irving from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2017 because General Manager Danny Ainge believed the All-Star point guard was the missing piece in what he believed to be an otherwise championship-caliber team.
Ultimately, Irving was unable to carry the Celtics to a championship during his two season's in Boston, and his reputation took a hit due to the way the New Jersey native conducted himself while playing for the Celtics.
Irving himself admitted that he "failed as a leader," when he was on the Celtics.
"And I failed those guys. I didn't give them everything I could have during that season [2019],” Irving said last month at the Nets Media Day. "In terms of me being a leader and bringing everyone together, I've failed."
Irving's former teammates also agreed that he did not do all that he could in order for the team to reach their full potential, and bring a title to the city of Boston. To Irving's credit, he has been very forthcoming about some of the struggles he has experienced in the past when being called upon to be a team leader.
With that being said, Irving seems ready to take on the mantle that goes along with being the player the rest of the locker room looks to when time's get tough. Irving should be able learn from his previous failures being a leader and apply them to his time with the Nets.
Irving also has to be able to prove, once and for all, that he could stand up to the rigors of an NBA season. Injuries to Irving cut his college basketball career short at Duke when he was only able to appear in 11 games, and injuries have plagued the point guard all throughout his eight-year NBA career.
Irving has never been able to play more than 72 regular season games in his career, and has been nicked all throughout his tenure in the league. The concept of load management will not be able to applied to Irving because the team needs him to be on the floor for them to have any chance to compete for the Eastern Conference.
Irving saying that he is ready to be the team leader is much different than him actually going out and doing it for an entire NBA season. The health of Irving, or lack thereof, will determine how well the first year of the Nets plan will end up faring.
While the Nets have lofty expectations heading into this season, the only way for them to be met is for Irving to become the leader he desperately says he needs to be, and for him to stay healthy.
If Irving is able to do these two things during the 2019-2020 NBA season, the team will be a force to be reckoned with in the Eastern Conference come playoff time.
