Contenders and Pretenders: Making sense of the NBA’s crowded field

Brooklyn Nets

There is no question that the Brooklyn Nets have improved over the offseason. Swapping D’Angelo Russell for Kyrie Irving is a major upgrade and a win-now move for a team with a talented, young core.

A healthy Kevin Durant would make this team the favorites to come out of the East, but he is likely to miss all of next season. Therefore, the key question here is whether or not Irving’s presence elevates Brooklyn to title contender status.

Simply put, it does not.

While the Nets figure to be a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference, this does not look like a team capable of challenging the likes of the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers while Durant is out. Milwaukee easily defeated Irving’s Boston Celtics in last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals, and Irving’s supporting cast in Brooklyn is seemingly worse than it was in Boston.

However, Irving’s final season in Boston was characterized by a great deal of drama and organizational dysfunction surrounding the Celtics organization. With the talented point guard joining Brooklyn, one of the NBA’s most well-run teams under general manager Sean Marks, chemistry may not be an issue.

Better chemistry could allow the Nets to outperform last year’s Celtics, a team firmly entrenched in the “pretender” category, but the role players surrounding Irving, such as Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, and Jarrett Allen, must continue to show improvement.

With a young supporting cast around Irving and Durant sidelined, the Nets do not seem to be a legitimate title threat this season.

Verdict: Pretender