James Harden is now a Net after he was traded from the Houston Rockets, but they’ve lost way more important pieces in their quest for a championship and in the future.
The day that we’ve all been waiting for has come. Harden has finally got his wish and is out of Houston. His destination: Brooklyn, to play with Kevin Durant. Notice I didn’t include Kyrie Irving because he decided to just not show up to work for a reason that he hasn’t said publicly.
Mortgaging the Future
Sean Marks traded away the organization’s entire future–their first-round picks in 2022, 2024, and 2026 and four pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027 along with Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert.
That’s the next seven seasons of their best draft picks that could keep the Nets as a contending franchise once Durant, Harden, and Irving are not on the team anymore.
Allen was the team’s best center and will be a future All-Star center who just scored 19 points and 18 rebounds on Rudy Gobert on January 5. LeVert was the team’s best bench player that consistently scored more than 20 points and was so valuable to a team that lost Spencer Dinwiddie to an ACL injury for the entire season.
Now, Nets fans will be watching a 32-year-old who isn’t a starting-caliber center anymore in DeAndre Jordan playing 35 minutes a game. They also now have just about no bench depth and their biggest problem got worse.
Where They Stand Now
The team’s defense has been terrible this season and Brooklyn just added Harden–who is known for not playing defense. They’ve given up more than 100 points to nine of first their 12 opponents this season. One of those nine games was when they gave up 126 points to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are supposed to be the worst team in the Western Conference this season.
If the Nets win a championship, then this James Harden trade will be worth it. But the chances of sustainable success is probably out the window. Brooklyn has two or three seasons to win a title because once their small window closes, it will be hard to see them finding any young talent because they’ve lost just about every first-round draft pick they have in the next handful of years along with LeVert and Allen, who they had a great chance at signing to an extension.
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Main Credit Image: Embed from Getty Images
