Brooklyn Nets: Starting lineup, rotation after the James Harden trade

The Brooklyn Nets went all-in on Wednesday, trading for disgruntled star James Harden. Who will be in the starting lineup and the rotation after the trade?

The Brooklyn Nets are no longer the afterthought of the New York area. Just 17 months after signing two All-NBA players in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, they are once again adding an offensive superstar. Wednesday afternoon the team pulled off an ambitious four-team trade to bring James Harden into the fold.

It has been an up-and-down start to the year for the Nets. New head coach Steve Nash has had to hold the helm steady amidst a storm of happenings. Durant has returned from injury looking like a top-10 player in the league again, but has played in just eight of their 12 games due to COVID contact tracing. Spencer Dinwiddie went down for the year with an ACL tear. Irving went missing a week ago and may have been partying while away from the team.

Brooklyn made the decision to double down on players partying in a pandemic by trading for James Harden. The former Houston Rockets guard moped through the last week of games with his old squad, finally triggering his trade out of town. In return, the Nets sent out Caris LeVert, Taurean Prince, Jarrett Allen, Rodions Kurucs and a host of draft capital.

In all that equals 13 starts, 888 minutes and 342 shots headed out the door. Harden obviously fills much of that space himself (and perhaps all of the shot attempts), but he can’t fill Allen’s place in the rotation. This team will need to add a few players to fill out the roster, but most of the rotation minutes will come from the current group. That means a few players will need to spread their wings.

Who will start for the Nets around their new offensive star? Which of the current players can be trusted to fill their rotation spot? And what about the current star point guard the Nets already have on their roster?