The Brooklyn Nets are expected to sign Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency, as they emerge as the NBA next super team
Kevin Durant might be sidelined for the entire 2019-20 NBA season, but the next time we see him on the hardwood he will be donning a Brooklyn Nets jersey.
That’s because the Nets managed to crash the 2019 NBA Free Agency party – breaking the hearts of New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers fans everywhere – en route to signing two of the top 5 free agents on the open market in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
While the Nets might still be a year away from being potentially the prohibitive favorite to win the NBA Championship, there’s no question that they won this year’s offseason – by a mile.
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Perhaps the best part of the Nets being able to acquire Durant and Kyrie is the fact that this was already a good team without either player. Albeit with D’Angelo Russell (who will now find a new home). Nevertheless, adding Durant and Kyrie to a young core of Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, and Jarrett Allen is pretty absurd.
The Nets will not only be one of the most top-heavy teams in the league but will have the depth to be competitive even in the year that Durant will use to recover. And that’s huge. Even next season, with Durant out, the Nets will still likely be a playoff team and their young talent will get invaluable experience that will help them all the more once Durant does make his return from injury in 2020.
It would be easy to poo-poo all over this move, considering that Kyrie is coming off somewhat of a disappointing showing with the Boston Celtics (his last stop) and Durant is injured and may never be the same player that he once was.
However, even if Durant is 80 or 90 percent this move will be worth it for the Nets. Just a couple years ago, the Nets were the laughing stock of the NBA. Now, they’re arguably the best team in the league (when healthy).
It’s quite amazing how things can change in the matter of a year, really. The Nets did it the right way too. After their huge mistake in trading for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in 2013, the Nets slowly rebuilt their assets, hired the right people in the front office and on the sidelines, made smart, cerebral signings and built an infrastructure that impressed enough to earn the attention of Durant and Kyrie.
Now, the Brooklyn Nets are the NBA’s next super team. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are Brooklyn bound. NBA Free Agency has gotten off to a bang.