Will this Big 3 fare better than the Nets Big 3 Six Years Ago?
The parallels between the 2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets team, and this year’s iteration cannot be ignored. That Nets team entered the season with high expectations from the fans, media, and players, and the same thing can be said for the Nets this season.
What makes these teams so similar is not only the expectations being heaped upon them, but also, the way in which the team was constructed. In the 2013 off season, the Nets made a blockbuster trade to acquire Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics. Along with All-Star players like Joe Johnson and Derron Williams, it was understandable why expectations were so high for the team entering the 2013-2014 NBA season.
In that season, the Nets ended up going 44-38, which was good enough to earn the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The experiment in Brooklyn was short lived though, as Pierce ended up signing with the Washington Wizards in the 2014 off season. The Nets would end up making the playoffs during the 2014-2015 season, but the championship aspirations the team had the year before never came close to being realized.
The Nets were unable to reach their full potential because players like Garnett and Pierce were clearly over the hill and were no longer players that were able to be the cornerstone to a championship team.
This season, the Nets will have Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and DeAndre Jordan teaming up to create a trifecta they hope will bring a title to Brooklyn.
With the Nets team going forward, age should not be their kryptonite, what may lead to their undoing is injuries.
Durant and Irving are two of the best players in the National Basketball Association, but they also have been as injury-prone as any two players in the league.
For example, Durant is going to be sidelined for most of this season, if not all of it, due to a Torn Achilles he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. Earlier in that same playoffs, Durant also suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of the lineup for a handful of games.
Durant has endured his fair share of injuries over his career which makes durability a chief concern for the small forward as he rehabs from yet another debilitating injury.
Irving has also had numerous injuries, mainly the point guard’s knees have been an issue during his career. As General Billy King took a huge chance in 2013 by acquiring aging veterans, Sean Marks is also taking a leap of faith that his two best players can stay on the court for an extended period of time.
With Durant being photographed in a Nets uniform for the first time yesterday, Nets fans were finally able to see concrete proof that Durant also actually did choose Brooklyn, and it was not just a dream.
Earlier this off season, Jordan discussed with media outlets these three players decided to team up with one another because they liked the culture which was being created in the borough. He also wanted to be a part of something great [the culture], and said that he could not pass up the chance to play with Durant and Irving.
Some very similar sentiments were uttered at the 2013 Brooklyn Nets Media Day. Garnett said that he is singularly motivated to win a ring in Brooklyn, and a big talking point on that day six years ago was the need to develop a rapport with their teammates given all the new players on the team that season.
The issue of chemistry is also one that will impact the ultimate success of the Nets this season, and for the future. If all of the Nets players do their job, and do not go above their defined roles, there is no reason why the Nets should not be able to bring a championship to the Barclays Center.
In 2013, many people thought the Nets also had all of the makings of a championship team, but instead it left them as the laughingstock of the league as the acquisition is regarded as one of the worst transactions in sports history.
The Nets hope that this time around, they will go from laughingstock to NBA champions.
2019 Brooklyn Nets Media Day is Friday Sept. 27, 2019.
