Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have had the responsibility to lead the Brooklyn Nets to the promised land this season. After creating a Big 3 with James Harden last year, the Nets were seen as championship favorites entering this campaign, but they haven’t played as well as expected.
With James Harden out of the team, Durant and Irving have carried the burden of leading the Nets while Ben Simmons is inactive due to his back issues. It’s been a complex season for these two, who are struggling to even make it to the play-in tournament right now.
Some people still believe the Nets can make some noise in the postseason, but they won’t be able to win it all with their current roster. During a recent edition of First Take, Magic Johnson claimed that the Nets can win a couple of series in the postseason, but they won’t go all the way.
“I think they’re gonna still have a deep playoff run. I think they’ll win the play-in, I’m not worried about that when you have Kyrie and you have Kevin Durant. They’re gonna beat the Hornets or whoever seed in there, I think you can get the best record, being in Miami and you can get the Brooklyn Nets. Listen, in a short series or a 7-game series with Kyrie and Kevin Durant, they (Brooklyn Nets) can win a series. They just can’t win the championship. But they can win definitely a series or two.”
However, Magic explained why he’s not confident the Nets can win it all, putting the blame on their defense and how it’s affected them all season long.
“And they gonna give people a lot of problems, but my problem is still the same thing, it’s sill defense, defense, and defense. Even you saw Kevin scoring 55 points, they got beat against the Atlanta Hawks. And they’ve been losing these last three, four weeks, they haven’t really played well, and so they gotta get on the run and start playing good basketball. They should use these last four games to try to really gain some momentum going into the playoffs.”
As great as Durant and Irving are on the offensive side of the ball, they aren’t surrounded by solid defenders and that’s been an issue for Brooklyn. The addition of Ben Simmons could give them the boost they need on both ends of the floor, but it’s unclear when the former Rookie of the Year will return to the lineup.
The Nets need to start playing well before it’s too late. They were considered championship favorites before the start of the season and at some point led the Eastern Conference. However, several issues hurt their game and now could even miss the playoffs.
