Brooklyn Nets: 5 storylines that will come to an apex in final stretch

Brooklyn Nets storyline No. 1: Can James Harden win a championship?

James Harden is a superstar who never quite seems to get his laurels. With the Houston Rockets, his teams were the only ones to really ever put a scare into the dynastic Golden State Warriors after they signed Kevin Durant. As far as accolades, he’s been second-place in MVP voting repeatedly as voters moved goalposts on him.

Now he’s in Brooklyn, surrounded by more talented teammates, and the narrative seems to be shifting in his favor. It’s less that he’s playing a different way, rather more a matter that his team is better, which in turn makes him better.

It turns out that NBA players look better when playing with other good NBA players, and that’s been the case with Harden. It shouldn’t be a surprise that that’s the case, but he’s long been derided nationally as unappealing to watch in spite of the fact that he generally played exactly the way that he and his Rockets’ organization deemed their best path towards victory.

That’s been his modus operandi throughout his career, but the fact remains that he has yet to win an elusive NBA championship. We’ll see this season if he’s able to do so this season with perhaps the most talented team he’s ever been on.