After a long wait, it finally happened. On March 8th, shortly after the 2021 All-Star Game, Blake Griffin, the former All-Star and dunk champion, signed a contract with the Brooklyn Nets. In exchange, he gave up a total of $13.3 million just so he can join the newly formed superteam between Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden. In total, the Nets’ five starters — Irving, Harden, Durant, Griffin and Jordan — have a combined 34 All-Star appearances. For comparison, only the Lakers have anywhere near that many involvements, with “only” 28, 17 of those coming from Lebron James. The third-place team in that statistic is the Portland Trailblazers with 18 appearances, a full 16 fewer than the Nets! So obviously the question is, do the remaining teams from around the league even stand a chance against such an accumulation of talent? Will the Nets dominate the playoffs in the manner that Golden State did not too long ago? Or is the new-look team around Durant more a pretender than a contender?
To do this, you first need to look at the Nets’ style of play to find out what the team’s strengths and weaknesses are, and then assess the lineup of the competition.
The Nets’ image has changed a lot in recent years. Just a few years ago, D’Angelo Russell was the team’s best player and, with the help of Caris Lavert, Jarret Allen and Spencer Dinwiddie, got the Nets to the playoffs for the first time since 2014/2015. The team seemed to have a lot of talent ready for the future and had a basically good financial situation. But then everything changed blow by blow. Russell was shipped to Golden State in exchange for Durant. Irving joined the team with Deandre Jordan as Durant’s entourage. Lavert and Allen were sent across the country in a mega-trade that brought Harden to Brooklyn, and Dinwiddie unfortunately suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury that will keep him on the bench for the rest of the year. The signing of Griffin only rounded out this process that transformed the young, promising team into a title favorite.
With the new players, furthermore, came a new organization at the coaching level. Previous Coach Atkinson was replaced, after a bit of drama, by first-time coach and Hall of Famer Steve Nash. In addition, former head coach of the Rockets, and former head coach of Steve Nash with the Phoenix Suns, Mike D’Antoni was hired. If you are familiar with the style of play of the aforementioned people, you will have a good idea of the identity of the Nets. A historically accurate model is probably the Phoenix Suns, who were coached by D’Antoni and led by Nash. Even back then, these two personalities were considered offensive visionaries who were said to have foreseen the game’s current transformation in rudimentary ways. The Suns’ tactic was a fast pace with quick finishes; defense was an afterthought. It’s a similar story with the current Nets. At the beginning of this year’s season, it seemed like the Nets were a semi-normal team. However, that changed with the addition of James Harden, because not only did they get one of the strongest offensive players of this generation in the trade, they also had to give up a young and talented rim protector in Jarret Allen. That left Deandre Jordan as the only player who could do anything defensively, but he is aging badly and has lost a lot of his athleticism. The logical consequence was that, on the one hand, the Nets put up offensive numbers like no team before in the history of the NBA, but at the same time, no team in the NBA has historically been as bad defensively as the Nets.
So how does the addition of Blake Griffin affect this style of basketball? It must be noted, if you look at his statistical productivity, there’s not much left of the former MVP candidate. Over the past two years, he’s put up 14 points per game at an abstruse efficiency for his team. Defensively, he’s never been a great asset, being too ponderous for smaller attackers but too small for bigger ones. What’s really odd, though, is the fact that his last dunk was almost two years ago now. All of these things suggest that he is well past the prime of his career and that he should no longer be considered a star in the league. Whether this view is actually correct remains to be observed, as there is also some evidence that could prove otherwise. However, it’s not the question of whether Griffin is still a star today that needs to be answered, but whether the Nets need a star at all. Right now, Griffin is being speculated against not as a starter, but as a bench player, where he would then be used as a small-ball center to maximize the offensive potential of the three superstars around Griffin. That task should be easy for him if he is honest about it. Even though he hasn’t shot as well from distance in the last 38 games, he is still a much better shooter than Deandre Jordan. Defensively, he should also have a positive impact on the team, despite his lack of talent, as the team mainly lacks big bodies who can hold their own in the post against players like Giannis or Embiid. Overall, though, it has to be said that while he will be a positive addition to the team, he won’t solve the massive problems the Nets have.
The Eastern Conference has long been known as the weaker of the two conferences. Still, the road to the Finals won’t be quite as easy for the Nets as one would imagine. The Bucks and 76ers in particular will be hurdles to overcome. While the Bucks don’t have the mass of superstars to show for it, they do have one of the best players the NBA currently has to offer with a team around them that is quite respectable. They have also been an exemplary team offensively and defensively in recent years. Especially defensively, they will probably be a matchup nightmare for the Nets, as they can provide a more than competent defender for every Nets superstar (Giannis, Holiday, Middleton, DiVincenzo). The 76ers will also likely be a different nightmare to prepare for. Besides the two superstars, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, who both have two stellar seasons offensively and defensively, the 76ers have a very deep team which is loaded with shooters and giants. Even if the Nets prevail against these two teams, they still have a team from the other conference, which will enter the Finals battle-tested against far more difficult competition. Among these teams the LA teams can be found, each equipped with two superstars and a deep team. The Utah Jazz are currently proving to the league that they too are serious contenders for the title. And then there are the Nuggets, who bring possibly the most talented team besides the Nets. With any of these teams, you can’t assume they’ll be intimidated because of the familiar names on the opposing side.
However, the Nets’ highest hurdle is probably not even an opposing team, but much more the concern about the health of the superteam. Of the four relevant players, Durant, Irving, Griffin and Harden, at most the last one is reliably healthy all the time. Griffin and Irving, who have struggled with injuries since the beginning of their careers, and Durant, who is coming back from a serious achilles tendon injury, will need to be available for the entire playoffs this year to ultimately win the title. If this is not the case, this weakness will most likely be exploited by the aforementioned competition and the title hopes could come to a quick end.
As a result, it’s clear that the Nets’ path to a title won’t be as easy as it looks at first glance. Even though the Nets have amassed an incredible accumulation of talent, the other relevant teams have upgraded extremely in recent years. Furthermore, one must never forget the vulnerability of the Nets’ superstars to injuries around playoff time, which could undermine any possible hopes of winning a title. While it is too much to say that the Nets are more pretender than contender, it is equally too much to say that they will dominate the entire league.
