3. The Nets Roster Is Already A Championship Contending Roster
When you look at recent years and examine the Nets, it is easy to point out that they should be better than they have performed, especially in the playoffs this past year given the names on their roster, but injuries have hurt this organization’s chances for success.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Dinwiddie, Wilson Chandler, Taurean Prince, and Nicolas Claxton all sat out of the NBA re-start this season down in the Orlando NBA Bubble due to injuries and personal reasons, leaving the Nets extremely short-handed and having to sign guys just to play for them in the playoffs. The Nets basically had guys on 10-day contracts playing for them, along with Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen, representing them in the playoffs in which they basically stood no chance against the reigning NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
Now, entering the 2020-21 NBA Season with everyone on the roster healthy, the Nets projected lineup looks pretty scary. Irving, Dinwiddie, LeVert, Durant, and Jordan starting with Allen, Chandler, and Prince coming off the bench, not to mention the draft picks and free agent signings joining the organization. The Nets are primed to make a deep run in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
If they were to go after James Harden, Dinwiddie and LeVert, at the least, would be a part of the package going to Houston and that would leave a massive hole in this Nets roster. Sure, the scoring output that they would receive from Harden would equal out or provide more scoring than the likes of Dinwiddie and LeVert from a season ago, but losing these two key role players would drastically damage the Nets rotations.
There would be questions about positions and who is in what rotation, not to mention the hole on defense this would leave as LeVert is a pretty decent two-way player for the Nets.
At full strength, it is still yet to be seen what this Nets team outlined above can do together during a full season and if all of the speculations are true, this roster could end up being pretty special. The Nets front office knew that when they signed Durant and Irving last summer, along with the other key role players, that they would not be able to see this team compete until the 2020-21 NBA season due to injuries and the fact that Durant would miss the entire 2019-20 season as he recovered from a torn Achilles tendon.
It seems very far-fetched to believe that the Nets would rip apart this roster after not even seeing them play together, especially with all of the faith they have put in it to succeed.
