Nets Hit The Jackpot
Who saw this coming? Now I haven't seen anything official numbers wise in the contracts but as reported by Adrian Wojnarowski the Nets blindsided us presumably all and struck a gold mind.
They have signed not just debatably the best player in the league but also debatably one of the ten best players in the league and one of the best centers in the league.
Those players I am speaking on are Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.
If you thought the Kyrie/LeBron tandem was a good time, wait till you get a load of this. I can already see the duo unloading 3's left and right and hitting hot streaks that are unimaginable and when they rarely miss having DeAndre Jordan down there cleaning up their mess with brutal put back dunks. Now we haven't seen him put someone on a poster like he did to poor Brandon Knight in a while but is that due to age or being uninspired? Well if it's the latter I think we're in store for some more ferocious jams that turn into godlike posters.
As far as the person whose not getting talked about enough in this deal (Jordan) is concerned, he had a bit of a problem at the Free Throw line early in his career and was known as the guy with decent form but was the worst free throw shooter in the league, for the people who haven't been keeping up with Jordan's game since his Clippers days you'd be surprised to find out that he has raised his Free Throw percentage from the mid 40's all the way to the low 70's, a pretty incredible turn around! Allot of people will look at them as JUST Free Throws but the old saying is still very true...Free Throws win you games and with all the hacking going on purposely sending Jordan to the Free Throw line in the 4th Quarter and having to pull him in big situations it's crucial to know now you can trust him out there on the floor in those situations.
Kyrie might have flamed out of Boston on bad terms and didn't exactly leave Cleveland on the best of terms either but there's no denying two things, he's a proven champion that isn't afraid of the big moment and dude still has some of the best skills in the entire league! I still find myself in awe in the situations he gets out of with his ball handling ability and he'll be more than ready to prove himself on the big stage and hopefully lift Brooklyn to a championship. With the unit they have acquired after these pickups I can't say I don't like their chances and Durant and Irving in the clutch at the Free Throw line?!?! They're going to be putting teams away with ease down the stretch of games.
Then there's Durant...what else is there to say about this 7'0 tall freak of nature that hasn't been said? Dude is a walking mismatch and can pull up from wherever he so pleases. This role kind of puts him back in a similar role he had with Westbrook in Oklahoma City though. I suspect much like Irving had with James in Cleveland that they will be taking a very similar number of shots. Durant was the man in Oakland but it was never his team, this however will be his team and he will have to share a good amount of shots again but this time in a more isoball style offense. It'll be more your turn my turn I believe like he had with Westbrook and LeBron had with Kyrie.
Unfortunately with the torn Achilles Durant suffered in the Finals last year from coming back to early, all signs are pointing to him sitting out next Season. Another thing to take into consideration is that a lot of star players were never the same after that kind of injury later in their careers for example take the Black Mamba himself Kobe Bryant.
Durant isn't quite as old as Bryant was then but he's no spring chicken either and not everyone has the durability of a LeBron James so we have our fingers crossed for him and wish him a speedy recovery and when this team is at full strength the sky is truly the limit!
Kevin Durant averaged 26.0 PPG/6.4 RPG/5.9 APG last season
Kyrie Irving averaged 23.8 PPG/6.9 APG/5.0 RPG last season
DeAndre Jordan averaged 11.0 PPG/13.1 RPG/2.3 APG last season