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.
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