Brooklyn Nets: Star power lands as Nets look to rise in 2019-20

Storyline 1: Which Kyrie Irving are the Nets getting?

What a whirlwind this league is. Two summers ago, Kyrie Irving did everything in his power to get out of Cleveland. Irving equivocated on all types of platforms regarding why he wanted out, although many will argue it was simply to get out of LeBron James‘ shadow. Fair.

But even when Irving was traded to Boston, where he was the lone star, things still weren’t right. His season-ending injury prior to the 2018 Playoffs was supposed to drag the Celtics down; instead, they galvanized and ended up one game away from the Finals.

This may have played into the locker room dysfunction that plagued Boston in 2018-19. The younger Celtics, namely Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier, did awesome in Irving’s absence. It’s justified that they’d be reluctant to giving everything over to the guy who wasn’t there for it.

Ultimately the Celtics had a solid 2018-19 season, but they grossly underperformed, only earning the 4 seed and a demonstrative second round exit. How much blame goes to Irving, the youngsters, or even Brad Stevens remains to be seen, but you can bet Boston was happy to see him go.

Based on what we know, it’s genuinely unclear what it’ll take to please Irving. On the other hand, he chose Brooklyn. He and Kevin Durant wanted to team up. He did not choose Boston.

If he and Durant can be kept happy, the Nets will be getting something special. Look no further than the impact the Nets had on D’Angelo Russell, a castoff in Los Angeles who made the All-Star team and finished second in Most Improved Player voting in Brooklyn’s system.

Stylistically, Irving seems like a great fit for Brooklyn’s scheme. He loves dazzling defenders with an array of otherworldly moves and the ball will be in his hands quite a bit (Russell had a usage rate of 31.1 percent last season), especially with Durant set to miss most of 2019-20.

The heavy diet of pick-and-roll action that Russell used will cater to Irving as well. Any sort of downhill momentum for a finisher like Irving will open up the offense quite a bit. That system has already worked for Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie too; now they don’t have to change much for the newcomer.

Should he grow bored of that style, Kenny Atkinson is creative enough to design different kinds of sets to get players involved. Seeing Irving come off screens and fire some quick-trigger 3s isn’t a crazy idea, nor is using him as multidimensional cutter off one of the other ball handlers.

If anyone can appease Irving, it’s the Nets.