James Harden traded to the Brooklyn Nets
 

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...-stunning-deal

Joins Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.

4 first round picks? That’s impressive

Now, who gets the ball?

Plus 4 pick swaps, since in the NBA you are not permitted to trade picks in consecutive years.

Crazy.

The perimeter/top-of-the-key-extended seems very crowded.

Durant and Harden already have some chemistry together, from OKC...

Tough to know for sure, whether a group will of NBA players will equal the sum of their parts.

They have on paper, a very powerful offensive potential, but do they have a coach to handle all this potential? A Phil Jackson coach would make it work, but not many coaches out there with his skill. Seems to me, that's the key. They will need "team" structure and someone who can keep Irving's mouth shut.

It most likely won't work, but you can't fault Brooklyn for trying. Kyrie is a headcase and neither he nor Harden play much defense, and they just traded away their best defender. Harden is also woefully out of shape for a professional athlete. Will be fun to watch in any case.

Teams like Brooklyn (and the Lakers) don't really care about draft picks because they can usually land top free agents. That is part of being a big market team.

Cannot imagine what Houston is going to do.......it's a free for all when it comes to the draft

The guy who bought them last year is a kind of dork........

he probably has some moneyball kind of scheme up his sleeve

The news is other teams were not interested in Irving being part of any trade. Irving is unbelievably talented and also unbelievably unreliable mentally.

Hate the way Hardin handled this but in contrast he plays every game, he will get in shape pretty quick. Where is he at mentally, he is obviously in a much different mindset than when coming off the bench for OKC. Watching him play is by far the least enjoyable of anyone I've ever watched, his act never gets love from the refs in the playoffs.

Another interesting angel is D'Antoni is on this coaching staff, the ultimate weakling when it comes to laying down any game plane or system other than what the players tell him they want. Nash flourished under him but that was more a function Nash of him being a true superstar who approached all aspects of the game and being a teammate in the most professional way.

Will Nash as a HC go with the same views that DAntoni used to coach. This should be very interesting, odds dropped considerably to win the East after this signing. Losing Spencer D. to injury was a huge blow.

Now this report below, although the GM stated the three will jell. Irving too much inside his own head, if he has issues I hope he gets help.


NBA Rumors: Kyrie Irving 'Furious' With Nets' Current Situation
https://nesn.com/2021/01/nba-rumors-...ent-situation/

Wow, Steve Nash is their head coach?
With the right assistants around him, he can certainly offer some positive input.

Irving doesn't seem to be a fan of criticism, and sounds like he is having ego/diva issues.

With plenty of talented alternatives, Kyrie's leverage is waning. He's going to have to do some talking on the court.


Can he 'buck up', and create some opportunities for Durant and Harden? Get the offense running, and there will be opportunities and wins, and playoff 'shine'.

Oh for sure, he is trying to emulate Presti in OKC, but of course first he had to get back similar picks to all the ones he gave away to OKC when they traded for one year of Russell Westbrook.

Looking back, what an awful, awful trade that was. Chris Paul had the much better season for OKC and the gave away a ton of picks to get rid of him, all because he didn't get along with malcontent Harden.

Pro Basketball has more primadonna's than all other sports combined.

Probably, but that is because one player is so much more important in basketball than any other sport.