Harden Jets Nets

By Andrew Rosario

 

 

In the latest edition of the soap opera “How the Nets World Turns,” the organization caved in and traded arguably one of the leagues best offensive players in James Harden. They added him to go along with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to create their Big 3 version. Due to injuries to all three during their tenure together, it turned out to be a big bust. Remember last year in the playoffs against Milwaukee, Harden pulled a hamstring in the first seconds of game 1. Still, the Nets took a 2-0 lead. Milwaukee came back to take game 3 and the series turned in their favor after Irving rolled his ankle in game 4. Harden returned for game 5 but was a shell of himself as they came away with the win. Durant did all he could in the last 2 games but it wasn’t enough. The Nets would lose the series in 7 games in overtime at home. Durant finished with 48 points and his last basket in regulation was ruled a 2-pointer with the tip of his sneaker touching the 3-point line.

 

 

 

 

Fast forward to this year and expectations were just as high to at least get to the Eastern Conference Finals. That was until Irving backed the organization in a corner stating he would not get vaccinated. The organization denied his request to play road games initially. They changed their minds and he made his debut in Indiana January 5th. Still, the team struggled and at one point lost 11 straight games. It didn’t help when Durant went down with a knee injury January 15th. Harden missed 3 games with another hamstring injury leading to speculation he was using the injury as an excuse to get traded. Reports surfaced that Durant was fed up with Harden and endorsed the trade to Philadelphia.

 

The trade came to fruition February 10^th with the blockbuster deal that sent Harden to the 76ers for struggling Ben Simmons. Philadelphia had suspended him up until the trade and fined him in excess of $19 million dollars as a result of missing 50 games. Simmons is not expected to play immediately. Hopefully when he is ready, Durant will be fully recovered. Irving is still relegated to only play road games. The Nets have 27 road games on their remaining schedule with 2 of those games taking place at Madison Square Garden. Because of the New York City vaccine mandate, Irving will not be allowed to play.

 

Nets second year head coach Steve Nash is confident that Simmons can return to his All-State level when he takes the floor. “I think he’s in a good place mentally,” he said last week. “If we work with him here, in conjunction with his physical ram-up to make sure he’s comfortable on and off the floor.”

 

In a move to improve their bench, the Nets acquired veteran guard Goran Dragic from the San Antonio Spurs. Nash and Dragic were teammates in Phoenix. They played 190 games over the 2008-2011 seasons.

 

When the Nets added Harden to Durant and Irving, visions of an NBA Championship was realistic. Injuries, Covid19 and frustration derailed those visions. As of this report, the Nets were currently in 8^th place in their division. They resume play Thursday night when they host the Boston Celtics.