I don't think most people have ever fully grasped how good James Harden is. With help from CP3, he almost knocked off the Durant Warriors (likely the most dominant team in NBA history) and would have done so had CP3 not gotten hurt. No other NBA team even came close to that and that was mostly because Harden is absolutely unstoppable as an offensive player.

He will win a title playing with Durant and it's going to happen whether Irving decides to give a shit or not.

As noted above, they'll be favored by Vegas whenever Irving decides to return and becomes part of the team again.

And yes, my only hope for the future of the league (i.e. LeBron's future) is that Kyrie doesn't want to play anymore and Durant starts hating Harden's guts within a year or two. But championships tend to smooth things like that over and the Nets will almost certainly be winning one this year.

Green was the glue for KD, Curry and Klay and Green, along with Klay were great defenders..plus Iggy was too. The key to the Warriors dominance was their defensive ability aswell as their incredible shooting from range. The next no doubt have the shooting..but the defense? Nah I don't see it at all. Who is gonna defend Embiid or Giannis? Kd? :D

Nets have title or failure like Brady. Anything less is a fail.

This year? I doubt it.

These things take awhile to get going. Plus. The lakers are ****ing good.

See above regarding the Nets having the 6th (Harden), 10th (Durant), and 29th (Irving) ranked players in BPM in the history of the NBA since 1973-1974: https://www.basketball-reference.com...pm_career.html

I'll take my chances with that over 36 year old LeBron, AD, and some scrubs.

We'll have to wait and see how things play out. Irving is a weirdo who didn't want to play w LeBron because he wanted the spotlight, Durant seems like a good teammate but Harden clearly is a dick who knows if he gets along w Irving.

Harden also already did play w Durant and Westbrook and they didn't win shit. Yes he has gotten much better since then but we will see how he plays w Irving. Harden is a a ballhog who doesnt play D. Great scorer yes and unstoppable at times but defense still matters in this league and they have no bench.

Who knows if Durant stays healthy. Lots of question marks there. Either way league is becoming a joke w all these players constantly leaving. Getting a little ridiculous..

I mean, they were in the Finals as kids. They may not have won the title, but they were REALLY freaking good prior to Presti ****ting the bed.

It took a LeBron at the peak of his powers with Wade still playing at a high level to knock off Harden/Durant/Westbrook and none of those three had reached their own peaks yet.

The Nets are ridiculously good right now.

Yeah, I'm not.

I hadn't followed the Kyrie thing. That dude might actually be crazy. I also didn't follow the Harden thing really closely and how he absolutely quit...and you know that he gained weight...THIS WEEK.

FWIW, I listened to the Russillo podcast about it today. It's a good listen. I'd recommend it. He had on Bill Simmons and Jackie McMullen (Who I normally don't like but she was really good today.

None of those guys thought it would work. I mean, it can work, but there is a lot of stuff that has to go right, and frankly, probably won't.

The big thing is personalities, which we've been over, although one thing I haven't seen mentioned is Harden has been THE ONLY GUY taking shots in crunch time for 8 years. That's a tough game to break.

What I didn't realize, is that Durant, to date, has almost the same usage rate as Kyrie, who's is ridiculously high, but both are less than historic Harden.

They're productive, but they can't all be historically productive together, because, well, there is a time limit.

Again, it CAN go right, but a lot has to go right.

Simmons and Russilo are Celtics fans who have an emotional vested interest in it not working out. Their opinion would be different had the Celtics traded Jaylen Brown for him, I can assure you.

Harden will be back and posting his ridiculous 40 point triple double lines on high efficiency within the month. He already showed he could do that earlier this month while 25 pounds overweight and he was trying to get traded. He will have to cut the usage down a bit but he’s got a likely top 10 player in NBA history Kevin Durant on his team to carry the load.

The only real concern with that team for me is Kyrie’s mental state. I’m not convinced he cares at all about basketball anymore and that probably won’t change regardless of any Harden trade. If he plays, though, that team is essentially unstoppable offensively.

It wouldn't be an NBA thread if KCC didn't paint Lebron has an underdog and sets him up to where no matter what he can't fail.

Yarp.

You surprised?

No. I could have typed up his take verbatim before he did.