Brooklyn Nets: James Harden allows for a super-stagger rotation

The Brooklyn Nets have a wealth of talent at their disposal after trading for James Harden. Now that they have three superstars, how will they use them?

The deed is done, James Harden has finally joined the Brooklyn Nets via the Houston Rockets in a four-team trade that involved the Indiana Pacers and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Nets shipped out Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince, Caris LeVert, three first-round draft picks and four pick swaps (all unprotected) but in the end they got their man and now have a legitimate Big 3 to rival some of the best in NBA history. James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are a fearsome trio, but there’s always one argument that gets posed when such a group is assembled:

There’s only one ball.

Of course, this argument is often more indicative of a lack of imagination than anything else, and that’s the case here. The Nets trio may actually be more able to complement each other than some such groupings in the past, and a big reason for this is the fact that now this team has the capacity to stagger their stars to counter their lack of depth.

James Harden allows the Brooklyn Nets to stagger their superstars

Historically speaking, Kevin Durant has preferred not to stagger with whoever his superstar teammates are, whether they be Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry or Kyrie Irving. This obviously means that his teams absolutely demolish opponents while they play together, but it leaves their depleted bench trying to hold leads.

The pattern has held so far with Durant and Irving, at least when the two have both actually been dressed to play. When they’re on the floor together, the Nets have an overwhelming net rating of +17.8. On the other hand, when they’re both off, they have a net rating of -8.3.

That’s fine in the regular season, but against teams with more balanced rosters in the playoffs, it could be a risky equilibrium. It’s also clear that this was the Achilles heel of this team coming into the season.

Enter James Harden.

With Harden aboard, the Nets can start games and close games with all of their Big 3 on the floor, but he allows Durant and Irving to take their spells together and he can be the engine for the bench. While the Nets sacrificed plenty of depth to get Harden in the first place, he’s quite familiar with being a one-man show on offense and can absolutely decimate opposing bench units all by himself.

With Harden, the Nets will always have at least one of him, Durant and Irving on the floor which is a stupendously dominant position to find themselves in. With a likely starting lineup of Durant, Harden, Irving, DeAndre Jordan and Joe Harris, suddenly a bench unit featuring Harden, Landry Shamet, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Jeff Green becomes an overwhelming reserve core.

There may only be one ball, but when the bench comes on for the Brooklyn Nets, James Harden is going to have it almost all of the time. Good luck stopping that with any other bench unit in the NBA. And when it’s starters versus starters, the Nets will have the three best players (!!!) on the floor most nights.

Usually, concerns of diminishing returns with so much star power are warranted, but in this case, this trio just makes too much sense together.

Don’t worry about the Brooklyn Nets, they’re going to be way better than you think.