I’m writing this right after I heard the news. Wow. That may be the biggest trade I’ve ever seen. I’m still trying to process the last 10 minutes (it is 4:43 PM as I’m writing this. If you didn’t catch what the trade was, here is the full trade, per Shams Charania of The Athletic:
Oh, and just as I put in that tweet, I’ve just learned that all four first-round picks and all four first-round pick swaps to the Rockets are unprotected, per Charania. That’s wild. Wow.
So what concerns me is that the Nets now have three players known to be divas (James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant). And the last time they traded a bunch of unprotected first-round picks for superstars, it didn’t end well. So, who wins this trade? The Nets should be the favorite to win the NBA Championship. But if they don’t, I think they are considered a bust. And knowing the history of the Brooklyn Nets, that might happen. How will the team chemistry be? The Nets traded away key players in Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen. They gave up a whole lot to get one player. James Harden is an MVP winner, but you shouldn’t throw everyone in the trade to get him. If the big three we see emerging in Brooklyn can work together well, the rest of the league doesn’t have a chance. And this is coming from a lifetime Celtics fan. Oh, also, is Andre Drummond on the move now that the Cavaliers acquired Jarrett Allen? I have a lot of questions, as probably most NBA fans do. I am very interested to see how this all unfolds once the players begin to play with their teams at full strength (also known as Kyrie Irving to stop acting like he knows everything and should go play and do his job). Steve Nash has a lot on his hands, but he could be fine, being a father for nearly four years now.
Next, I want to talk about superteams. The most notable one was the Golden State Warriors dynasty with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green. That dynasty won two championships together. Minus Durant, those players won 1 additional championship. Durant brings a lot to the team, being the greatest scorer maybe in NBA history. Stephen Curry is arguably the greatest shooter of all time and Thompson is up there as well. Draymond Green was the Defensive Player of the Year during that dynasty. When I mean superteam, I mean ones that were formed by signings or trades. Drafting a superteam means you’re the greatest drafter ever (Jerry Krause, even though he was also the one who tore the team apart). Curry, Thompson, and Green were all drafted by Golden State, but what made them a superteam was adding KD. The first superteam was the Miami Heat, winning two titles with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Ray Allen (Allen was only there for the 2013 title). That was the team everyone hated. The Warriors were that next team. The Nets could be the next team.
I hate how teams can get all these ridiculously talented players on one team and that’s how they win. Before 2010, there weren’t any teams like that (maybe the Celtics when they had Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett) and teams still won NBA championships. I want that type of NBA back. The NBA was more about team chemistry than they were about having the most talented players back then. Team chemistry is a huge part of basketball that many NBA fans are not aware of (yes, you’d be surprised by what I see on Instagram and Twitter). So for today’s NBA to be like this is the reason why I don’t tend to watch it as much as college basketball. In fact, this is my first post about the NBA. I will try to post more about the NBA, but when you have teams like what the Nets have, it’s hard to like watching that.
Calhoun's Corner 