Saturday Slam: Should the Brooklyn Nets blow up?

                                              (Credit: Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports) 

The Brooklyn Nets were a team that had so much hype and promise at the start of the season. They had James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant. They were looking like a team that should come out of the East or at least reach the conference finals. Instead, they finished 7th in the conference and got swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Boston Celtics. While a lot of people are talking about blowing up the Utah Jazz after the way their post-season ended (I'll share my thoughts on that in an upcoming post), I think it's perhaps even more fair to ask the same question about the Nets.

For starters, Harden is gone. He's now with the Philadelphia 76ers and still in the playoffs, advancing to the second round where they'll face the Heat. By trading him before the deadline, that was already a step towards blowing up the team. 

Secondly, Irving refused to get vaccinated, making it so he couldn't play every night while also creating an unnecessary distraction. It's hard to develop a rhythm and team chemistry when one of your key players is in and out of the lineup. While the vaccine mandate was eventually lifted and Irving was able to play in home games towards the end of the season, it's clear that his inability to play really inhibited them. And while Irving's refusal to get vaccinated was about personal freedom, the fact that he was willing to put his team through all that has to make one wonder how committed he really is to building a championship team in Brooklyn. 

Third, Durant is getting up there in age. He'll be turning 34 in September and while he did average 29.9 points per game this season, one can't help but wonder how much more gas he has left in the tank considering the Achilles injury he had and everything. Father time catches up with everyone and he could be soon to catch up with Durant as well. 

Last and most importantly, they got swept in the first round. That's bad. Any time you get swept in the playoffs, that has to lead to some soul searching and introspection. Especially if you are a more veteran team. It's one thing to get swept and be young with a promising future. The future is supposed to be now for the Nets and if now isn't panning out, it's hard to see it ever panning out. 

The bottom line is the Nets have a lot of questions to ask themselves after this season and the first one is whether or not they keep Durant and Irving together or if they begin the process of blowing up the team and starting over. It's not a fun conversation to have, but when you exit the playoffs like they did, it's a conversation that needs to be had. 

To connect with NBA Lord on Twitter, click here. 

To connect with NBA Lord on Facebook, click here. 

To connect with Ben Parker, click here. 

                                    
                                           

Tomahawk Tuesday: Should the Golden State Warriors be favored to win the West?

 

                                             (Credit: Jeff Chiu/Associated Press) 

At the moment, the Golden State Warriors are up 3-1 on the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. It's the only Western Conference series that's clearly going in favor of one team. The top-seeded Suns are being pushed to the brink by the eight-seeded Pelicans tied 2-2 in their series; the two-seeded Grizzlies are up 3-2 on the seven-seeded Timberwolves after winning 111-109 tonight; and the five-seeded Jazz will look to force a game seven on Thursday against the Mavericks. 

The Warriors are on cruise control right now and assuming they advance, they'll face either a Grizzlies team that got pushed to the brink of elimination or an up and coming Timberwolves team that doesn't seem ready to reach the conference finals. And then who knows who'd be waiting for them in the conference finals if they get there. Even if it's the Suns and Devin Booker is back, the Warriors have more championship experience. And that's really the whole point here. The Warriors are the only team in the entire Western Conference playoffs who have proven championship DNA. Everyone else for one reason or another can be called into question. 

This isn't to say the Warriors are perfect or that they don't have their flaws. They do. There's a reason they didn't get the top seed in the West. But when looking around the rest of the conference, it's hard to not look at the Warriors and think they should be favored to come out on top. Stephen Curry is back, Klay Thompson is back, Draymond Green is healthy, and Jordan Poole is a rising star. They have their core championship unit intact and appear to be heating up at the right time. 

As of this moment, I believe the path to an NBA title out West goes through Golden State. Their overall body of work speaks for itself and nobody else in the conference appears ready to grab the bull by the horns and take control. It'll be interesting to see if Golden State goes on to win the West rather unopposed or if some worthy challenger out of all these other struggling teams will emerge. 

To connect with NBA Lord on Twitter, click here. 

To connect with NBA Lord on Facebook, click here. 

To connect with Ben Parker, click here.