The Brooklyn Nets enter the 2021-22 season with their Big 3 fully intact.
Their 2020-21 campaign began with James Harden miserable with the Houston Rockets before a blockbuster four-team deal sent him to Brooklyn, with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers also playing roles. It barely seemed like Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had any opportunity to play together before injuries and other maladies derailed them, but the coming season means new opportunities for this trio.
In the coming pages, we’ll rank the Nets starters, 1-through-5, and we’ll start with their best player. It’s no surprise who that is.
Ranking the Brooklyn Nets starters: 1. Kevin Durant
Assuming Kevin Durant stays healthy, he may very well be the best player in the NBA. He averaged 26.9 points, 7.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists last season, but those stats don’t begin to describe how dominant he is when he’s on the floor. Durant is hyper-efficient with shooting splits of 54-45-88 and is unstoppable any time he has the ball in his hands. He also happens to be an elite defender when the situation calls for it.
Durant isn’t likely to win an MVP award next season, no matter how many games his Nets win. That’s because he’ll probably get a healthy dose of games off (hopefully fewer than the 37 games he missed last season), and a healthy James Harden is likely to cause a split among voters. In fact, while Durant is this team’s best player, Harden might be the Nets’ most legitimate MVP candidate.
We’ll talk about why on the next slide.