It’s time to admit it: The Brooklyn Nets might be the best team in the NBA
The Brooklyn Nets might be the best team in the NBA right now. They’re certainly the most dangerous one.
Heading into the season, the expectations for the Brooklyn Nets were high. That wasn’t surprising considering this was a team that had as much talent on the roster as any other team in the league and had quickly become one of the deeper teams in the Eastern Conference.
However, after a slow start to the season, the narrative around the Nets shifted from a team that many around the league feared to one of somewhat of a failure. Then, something changed for the Nets.
It’s hard to pinpoint what exactly clicked for the team, but it’s clear that something has.
You can point to the firing of head coach Steve Nash to Ben Simmons finding his comfort zone with the team to the return of Kyrie Irving (after a suspension) that all sparked the team. Maybe it was a culmination of it all? Either way, no matter what it was, the Nets have looked like a completely different team in the last six weeks.
Specifically, in the last 19 games (since November 17), you can make the argument that the Nets are playing like the best team in the league.
The Nets have been a different team since Kyrie Irving’s return
Since November 17, it has all clicked for the Nets. Over that 19-game span, the Nets are 16-3 (best record in the NBA). They also have the best offensive rating in the league, the ninth-best defensive rating in the league, and the second-best net rating.
Not only are they beating teams and doing so impressively, but they’ve beaten some of the best teams in the league during that stretch. And Brooklyn has possibly been most impressive as of late as they are on a three-game winning streak in which they beat Golden State by 30 points, Milwaukee by 18 points, and Cleveland by eight points.
This recent hot streak has gotten to the point where the Nets have been this juggernaut of a team longer than they were the lifeless team at the beginning of the season. In other words, there’s a chance this might be the real Nets.
Short of injury throwing everything into a loop, there’s no reason to think that the Nets can’t keep this level of play up. They have two of the five-best offensive players in the league and a wild card star in Ben Simmons, who appeared to have found his footing with the team.
Maybe you still believe that the Boston Celtics are still the best team in the league. Or perhaps that the Milwaukee Bucks are still a tad better than the Nets. I won’t argue much against that. However, if you don’t believe that the Nets are the best team in the league right now, there’s one thing you can’t really argue against. Especially with Brooklyn’s recent play.
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It’s the fact that even if you don’t believe the Nets are the best team in the league right now, it’s hard to look at this team (with how they’ve played recently) and not believe that this is the league’s most dangerous team at the moment.