1. Who Gets The Ball In The Final 10 Seconds Of A Game?
Now, this sounds very cliché and may not matter just from the looks of it, but honestly, will all three of these ball-dominant All-Stars gel well together? When it comes down to it in Game 7 of the 2021 NBA Finals, does first-year Steve Nash make the decision on who takes the final shot or do all three of these guys fight for the ball and end up losing?
Those are two legit questions the Nets front office needs to be asking themselves and quite frankly, need to figure out before even offering anything to Houston.
Last season, James Harden ranked third in the NBA in usage rate percentage (an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player when he was on the court) at 36.5%. Two seasons ago, Irving’s usage rate was 30.4% with the Celtics and KD’s usage rate with the Warriors was 29.1%. Combining all of these rates would mean that of the Nets total usage rate, 96% would be for Harden, KD, and Irving.
Unless each of these guys go out and score 40 points per game, which they won’t, the Nets will not win many games with just three players.
On NBA 2K, this team would be great, but in real life, someone will have to sacrifice shots and opportunities for one of the other stars on the team and both Durant and Irving do not seem like the kinds of players to sacrifice the “last shot opportunity” for someone else. Both players are NBA champions and would not be champions without their abilities to take over and be the one on their respective teams to take the last shot.
Just look at Irving in 2016 when the Cavaliers won the NBA Championship. Sure, LeBron James had one of the most iconic blocks in NBA history on Andre Iguodala in the final minutes of Game 7, but if it wasn’t for Irving being the one to take the “final shot” for the Cavaliers with 54 seconds left, he may not be a NBA champion.
Harden, Durant, and Irving may all be friends, but just because they are friends does not mean they will all play well together when it matters. All three of these guys are very emotional players on the court and with them all being so reliant on having the ball in their hands in crunch time, there is no telling what would happen with this potential Nets team when it matters most.
The scenario of “who will get the final shot” needs to be addressed by the Nets immediately if they are indeed going to go all-in and acquire James Harden, but it may not end the way they hope. None of these guys are used to playing off-the-ball and asking them to take on different roles at this point in their careers would be nonsense.
If the Nets want to contend for championships now and down the road in the future, their best bet is to pass on trading for Harden and contend with what they have built over the last few seasons.
Without Harden, the Nets are still one of the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals this season, so there is no need to shake things up roster wise.
