The Brooklyn Nets are the hottest team in the NBA currently, riding a nine-game winning streak. For the first time in a long time, the franchise can just focus on the court as they have put all of the drama from earlier this season behind them and started winning basketball games with regularity.
Brooklyn is getting healthier, looking more and more like the title contender many thought that they were capable of being. Leading the pack is Kevin Durant, who continues to showcase why he is regarded as one of the best basketball players in the world.
Durant is averaging 30.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.5 blocks, and 0.8 steals in 36.4 minutes per game. The points and assists lead the team, while he makes 56.3 percent of his shots overall, 37.3 percent from 3-point range, and 92.5 percent from the foul line.
Durant left behind a very stable situation with the Golden State Warriors to lead the Nets to the promised land, deciding to team up with Kyrie Irving. It is a decision that left many people perplexed and Durant recently opened up about why he decided to leave town.
“It was another pivot,” Durant says of leaving Golden State. “I just wanted to play ball somewhere else. But a lot of people see it as I’m chasing something. And I think it probably stems when I said, ‘I don’t want to be number two no more.’ I was number two in high school, in the draft. But what I had to explain to people was, I had just lost in the Finals. I wanted to go back and win the Finals. It wasn’t about: ‘I want to be the best ever. I want to be better than LeBron or [Michael Jordan].’ I don’t give a s— about that. I want to wake up every day and do what I do. If we win, I know that stuff comes with me being the best that I can be.”
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets & Golden State Warriors Updates
If winning the NBA Finals was Durant’s ultimate goal, leaving Golden State was definitely an odd way to go about getting back there. The Warriors had down seasons after Durant left dealing with injuries to Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, but they climbed the mountain top again becoming the 2021-22 NBA Champions.
Golden State has as many championships as Durant has playoff series wins since he decided to leave in 2019. It has been rocky at times, as Durant and Irving both looked like they would be leaving the franchise this off-season.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets & Golden State Warriors Updates
While everyone got on the same page for this season, it still seems likely that major changes will come sooner than later. Will a championship come before that occurs? We will have to wait and see, as the Nets certainly look like viable contenders currently but we know how fast things can turn for the franchise.
