Brooklyn's chances of winning the NBA title

I’m not adding to the Nets bulletin board material.

I will not bet against this Nets team. This take isn’t a homer play here or a reverse jynx—this take is common sense.

I’m not going to be apart of the montage of takes that will ring through the Nets victory parade saying, “this team couldn’t do it or I’m concerned with the Nets chances of winning the title.” I refuse to steep to that level because it’s foolish.

I will not overreact to Steve Nash sitting Durant for the Philadelphia game instead of sitting him in the Minnesota game the day before, that is just the NBA, and arguing load management is the basketball equivalent of screaming into the abyss.

When Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden are all on the floor together, THEY ARE THE BEST TEAM IN THE NBA! There is no question about it. That trio doesn’t have to be fully healthy either, I would take all three of them at 75% against the field for the title. To me it doesn’t matter if they only have 10 games total playing together when the playoffs start, they’ve played games together in the summer and in the Olympics, will it take a game or two, maybe, but Durant, Kyrie, and Harden are beyond words when they are on the floor together. One of them can also win a game if two of them are off in the first round against a Miami or Indiana.

This team isn’t going to be the ’97 Bulls or 2017 Warriors and coast through the playoffs, they’ll have to grind out a couple series, but losing a game here and there in a series because that’s just what the playoffs are, is not going to scare me away from picking the Nets to be the last team standing at the end of June.

The role players do not scare me nor does a Kyrie take over game where he plays Brooklyn out of a win (I know it’s coming; I don’t have to be happy about it while watching it, but it won’t scare me off), this team to me has been the best team in the East excluding a week and a half period where Philadelphia was stomping teams with no remorse. Philly will meet the Nets in the Eastern Finals and it will go seven games; Joel Embiid will have a stat-line of 30/40/4 every single game, and the trash talk through Twitter and postgame press conferences will reach the highest peak a modern NBA “rivalry” can get. It will be awesome for the NBA and I will have a fun time routing against, and hating, the 76’ers (sorry Mick). With some NBA fans yearning for the old days of the NBA where rivalry’s mattered and the teams hated each other, this will give them a week and a half time machine flashback, however Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving will laugh and probably get dinner after game seven.

Until the Nets loss and prove everyone who is picking against them, I will not do that, but, I also won’t print the championship t-shirts, and start planning the championship parade through DUMBO and Williamsburg. I understand something could happen that would get in the path of a Nets Championship, the Death Star Warriors didn’t see Durant’s Achilles bursting into a million pieces, the Big Three Celtics didn’t foresee LeBron jumping ship and going to Miami, stuff happens. Unless you hate the Nets for a reason other than being a troll, route against the Nets winning, but if you don’t have a leg in the fight, sit back and watch something we might not ever see again in our lifetime. Even if you hate greatness, at least appreciate it (if I can do that with Tom Brady—you can do that for this Nets roster). After all, history will need us to dictate how this team gets remembered, that history has to be accurate.  

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