The Brooklyn Nets implosion: Kevin Durant flies into the Suns
Kevin Durant is reborn in fire
The Nets just lost their superstar point guard, Kyrie Irving. They lost their other superstar guard, James Harden, one year ago today. And now we hear that they've lost the last, and probably most important, piece of their GigaTeam: MVP, 2x Finals MVP, and arguable top-5 player in the league, Kevin Durant.
The forward has been traded to the Phoenix Suns, where he'll join a stacked lineup including superstar shooting guard Devin Booker, superstar point guard Chris Paul, and top-10 centre DeAndre Ayton, which creates one of the most stacked offensive starting lineups we've seen in a long time. They're likely the favourites to win it all now, plus they're not gonna be too bad defensively, either. The West is looking lethal this season.
The Nets, while losing their superteam completely, were reimbursed with four 1st round picks and Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, and Jae Crowder. Bridges especially is a great piece to consider in further trades if they want to really bolster their draft capital. They also got a 1st and two 2nds for Kyrie, so they've got ammunition ready to burn; still, it's unlikely the Nets will be competitive for many years now.
The Suns, meanwhile, will be looking to capitalise on their newly acquired megastar asset from a decent position (5th in the West) as the season starts to seriously gear up. The spacing we're gonna be seeing with CP3 at the 1 (playmaking, outside shooting, driving), Booker at the 2 (catch-and-shoot, 3 ball), Durant at the 3 (iso demon, deadly anywhere), and Ayton at the 5 (rim finishing and offensive rebounding), is as close to a superteam as you can imagine since a certain New York team brought in some very good players just a few years ago. A cathartic finality for fans of parity in the East.
Couldn't stop laughing when I saw a dude referring to Ja Morant's 'I'm cool in the West' statement as the catalyst for the incredible stack up in the West. Suns, Mavericks, Nuggets? Even the Grizzlies and playoff Warriors are incredibly hard to beat on a good day. Those fans of parity in the East will have to wait a while.