As soon as the Brooklyn Nets landed James Harden to pair with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, the big question for the rest of the Eastern Conference quickly became about how to stop them. A trio of NBA superstars brought back the ‘superteam’
Rival teams didn’t have the luxury of building a team in free agency designed to stop the Nets as the move was relatively sudden. Now, the question remains who will stop the Nets from being in the NBA championship this year? For many, the answer is no one, but not everyone is all aboard the Nets bandwagon.
According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, an NBA scout believes the Boston Celtics are equipped to be the top challenger for the Brooklyn Nets in the playoffs.
“I think Boston matches up better [against Brooklyn],” another Western Conference executive said. “They have those three guys [Tatum, Brown, and Smart], they’ve got some different looks they can throw out there with their bigs. And the Nets can’t punish them [inside] anyway.”
It’s an interesting scenario, but the timing of the comment is also intriguing. The Celtics are 14-13 and 4-6 in their last 10 games. To be fair to the Celtics, Jayson Tatum has mentioned he is still struggling with the after-effects of Covid-19, Marcus Smart is out of the lineup and Kemba Walker has been battling injury.
The Celtics are definitely capable of at least giving the Nets a hard time, but in their current situation, nothing is exactly a sure thing for Boston. Assuming Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden all manage to stay healthy, Brooklyn will be as tough of an out as they come.
The recent news about Andre Drummond adds another wrinkle to this possible matchup. The Nets have been running a small ball type lineup with Deandre Jordan in there from time to time.
If the Celtics are somehow able to acquire Andre Drummond, not only would they match up with the Nets up top, but down in the paint as well. There is quite a lot of season left to play and who knows what the teams will be like come playoff time, but it’s an interesting possible matchup.
