GT: Magic @ Nets 1/16/21 6:00pm EST(James Harden debut)

[LOUiS-D]

Anyone still in awe of how good they looked together? Can't get it out of my head how wide open Joe Harris was in a halfcourt set.

[StepBackCrack]

What do you guys think of Harden and KD's two man game? I couldn't stop smiling seeing these two play together. I easily saw this coming. These 2 will be the deadliest duo in the league. And Kyrie is coming holy ****

Legit unfair

There was a point where they were doubling KD and leaving Harden open. This guy was literally getting doubled at half court last year because he was unstoppable 1v1.

Later, KD already had 30+ and they were trapping Harden on PNRs and giving KD space. We already saw this when Kyrie was the main ballhandler but man, what are you supposed to do against these guys? With Harris spacing out in the corner?

It's one thing to be an elite offense in the regular season. It's another to do it with these guys who can cook any type of defense.

Exactly!! even GSW with KD didn't have such versatile scorers at the same time imo. Curry and Klay are mainly scorers from outside. Whereas in this team you have 3 players that can counter any defensive sets because they have such insane offensive skill-set. It will be so much fun to watch them play together.

[StepBackCrack]

Anyone still in awe of how good they looked together? Can't get it out of my head how wide open Joe Harris was in a halfcourt set.

Harris will EAT this season 49% from 3 already.

[StepBackCrack]

Harris is quite good. He is 49% from 3 already and he will only get more open looks which is crazy lol. The fact that the Nets didn't have to trade Harris and get Harden is a huge win for them.

What would you do with Kyrie if you were Nash and still want to maximize the potential of Harden/KD and Kyrie obviously? I feel Nash should stagger their minutes as much as possible. Bench Kyrie early perhaps and then let him lead the bench unit (this could be experimented with James as well). When it comes to closing, get Kyrie in with Harden/KD. And when they play all together, Harden should be the primary ball handler because essentially, he is their best PG/playmaker for sure. Harden/KD already seem to have this perfect balance of how much each handles the ball and when to pass/shoot. Harden still handles the ball more as he should but KD still gets enough time on the ball to be his lethal self. Such high IQ players. I hope Kyrie will be able to strike such a balance. He certainly will need to handle the ball a bit less imo. We will see soon how it goes. I'm just so excited.

[StepBackCrack]

Just went to LA board out of curiosity about what some say about the Nets and found this gem.

I am not concerned at all about the Nets. That team is a recipe for disaster. That Big 3 is toxic, ball-dominant, plays no defense and is aging and showing health concerns. Their depth is also depleted, I don't see anyone playing defense on that roster except maybe veteran DeAndre Jordan. I just can't see them beating the Sixers, Celtics or Bucks in a 7-game series.

[Papi_swav]

James Harden played A1 defense. He had many clean strips and deflections. He needs to continue that. It's no way this offense doesn't click, these guys are just the very best at getting buckets. I'm anxious to see how Kyrie now. It's going to be highlights on highlights on highlights. We need another big, DJ ain't it. We need someone more athletic that's 7 feet, Vucevic was scoring with ease.

Nobody will be able to stop this offense.

[Papi_swav]

Hey guys, depending on how much traction we get on our board, I have an idea that I think would be cool for us to implement.

IIRC, boards like the Heat and the Magic have postgame awards that they give to a player on their team after wins. For us, I was thinking that our award could be a crown (in reference to Brooklyn, “Kings” county).

In essence, after every win, we each vote to give a crown to the Brooklyn Nets player and give at least a short explanation as to who we thought was the MVP of the game. The player with the most votes gets the crown for the game. During the season, we can keep a running log and whoever has the most crowns is our “King of Brooklyn”.

The crown doesn’t always have to go to the best player or the one who scored the most points, so occasionally I’d expect guys like Harris and even Brown to get some crowns.

Thoughts?

yes great idea. James Harden gets the crown for this one

[Whiskey Slick]

Harden is amazing.

I admit I don't watch much of the Rockets so I forgot how great he is.I was reminded last night, big-time!

I hope Kyrie is back for the next game because I'm dying to see this team with the BIG 4 on the floor together.

Yes, when you can shoot 3's like Harris, and that's not all, I'm counting you as part of the BIG 4, not just BIG 3.

[Khashbaatar]

Every player had a plus in this game except for Jordan lol. When he was on the floor they were -3. Need a solution for this. He was horrible

DJ deserves all the hate he receives, but isn't it common knowledge that he struggles against stretch bigs?
Vuc is top 5 stretch big in the league, in the echelon of AD, KP, KAT. He will get his numbers no matter what kind of defense thrown at him. JAfro boy couldn't have stopped Vuc's pick'n pop game. Vuc was always the best player on the floor during the Milwaukee-Orlando series in the bubble.
Overall, I liked how DJ played today. His short-roll with KD, his passes to cutting Harris, slipping Shamet was quite telling about his confidence in his games. He will be fine once he develops chemistry with Harden, and starts box-out a couple more Drebounds.

Read on Twitter

[MrDollarBills]

Just went to LA board out of curiosity about what some say about the Nets and found this gem.

I am not concerned at all about the Nets. That team is a recipe for disaster. That Big 3 is toxic, ball-dominant, plays no defense and is aging and showing health concerns. Their depth is also depleted, I don't see anyone playing defense on that roster except maybe veteran DeAndre Jordan. I just can't see them beating the Sixers, Celtics or Bucks in a 7-game series.

Sounds like nervous hate to me.

Also, he clearly doesn't know what he's talking about

[Whiskey Slick]

Every player had a plus in this game except for Jordan lol. When he was on the floor they were -3. Need a solution for this. He was horrible

DJ deserves all the hate he receives, but isn't it common knowledge that he struggles against stretch bigs?
Vuc is top 5 stretch big in the league, in the echelon of AD, KP, KAT. He will get his numbers no matter what kind of defense thrown at him. JAfro boy couldn't have stopped Vuc's pick'n pop game. Vuc was always the best player on the floor during the Milwaukee-Orlando series in the bubble.
Overall, I liked how DJ played today. His short-roll with KD, his passes to cutting Harris, slipping Shamet was quite telling about his confidence in his games. He will be fine once he develops chemistry with Harden, and starts box-out a couple more Drebounds.

Read on Twitter

How bout PG Kyrie Irving and C DeAndre Jordan to Cleveland for C Andre Drummond and PG Darius Garland?

Huge downgrade at PG, but only 20 and a former #5 overall pick with room to grow.

However, huge upgrade at Center and Drummond is only 27. I would also suggest that a dominant inside presence like Drum is a better fit than another dominant scorer like Kyrie.

Also, let's be honest, after the stunt he pulled last week, how can we really trust Kyrie won't do it again?

[Paradise]

Every player had a plus in this game except for Jordan lol. When he was on the floor they were -3. Need a solution for this. He was horrible

DJ deserves all the hate he receives, but isn't it common knowledge that he struggles against stretch bigs?
Vuc is top 5 stretch big in the league, in the echelon of AD, KP, KAT. He will get his numbers no matter what kind of defense thrown at him. JAfro boy couldn't have stopped Vuc's pick'n pop game. Vuc was always the best player on the floor during the Milwaukee-Orlando series in the bubble.
Overall, I liked how DJ played today. His short-roll with KD, his passes to cutting Harris, slipping Shamet was quite telling about his confidence in his games. He will be fine once he develops chemistry with Harden, and starts box-out a couple more Drebounds.

Read on Twitter

How bout PG Kyrie Irving and C DeAndre Jordan to Cleveland for C Andre Drummond and PG Darius Garland?

Huge downgrade at PG, but only 20 and a former #5 overall pick with room to grow.

However, huge upgrade at Center and Drummond is only 27. I would also suggest that a dominant inside presence like Drum is a better fit than another dominant scorer like Kyrie.

Also, let's be honest, after the stunt he pulled last week, how can we really trust Kyrie won't do it again?

Lol Sounds like a nice idea to destroy the team from the inside-out. They both are salivating to play with Kyrie. No thanks.

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Keith Van Horn]

Harris is quite good. He is 49% from 3 already and he will only get more open looks which is crazy lol. The fact that the Nets didn't have to trade Harris and get Harden is a huge win for them.

What would you do with Kyrie if you were Nash and still want to maximize the potential of Harden/KD and Kyrie obviously? I feel Nash should stagger their minutes as much as possible. Bench Kyrie early perhaps and then let him lead the bench unit (this could be experimented with James as well). When it comes to closing, get Kyrie in with Harden/KD. And when they play all together, Harden should be the primary ball handler because essentially, he is their best PG/playmaker for sure. Harden/KD already seem to have this perfect balance of how much each handles the ball and when to pass/shoot. Harden still handles the ball more as he should but KD still gets enough time on the ball to be his lethal self. Such high IQ players. I hope Kyrie will be able to strike such a balance. He certainly will need to handle the ball a bit less imo. We will see soon how it goes. I'm just so excited.

I feel there should be the priority to at least have always 1 of those 3 guys on the floor at all times. And this is where the Dinwiddie injury hurts, because when you consider him and the possibility to have at least 2 of those guys (Irving, Din, Harden, KD) on the floor at all times - that's even better.

Overall though, I don't think we need to overthink it too much. I think Nash will get the rotations right and I think these guys are just so good and so smart, that they will gel and figure it out together. They're all experienced, they're all veterans, and they're all still in their prime. They have a flexible coach and staff who want to win games flat out (as opposed to monitoring minutes like an authoritarian like Kenny did). They're all motivated with their causes, primarily coming from what fans/media are saying about them. I'm just so excited. It took me a day to process the Harden deal with the loss... but once I convinced myself it was the right move and then saw last night the results, I'm over the moon.

[Whiskey Slick]

I feel there should be the priority to at least have always 1 of those 3 guys on the floor at all times. And this is where the Dinwiddie injury hurts, because when you consider him and the possibility to have at least 2 of those guys (Irving, Din, Harden, KD) on the floor at all times - that's even better.

Overall though, I don't think we need to overthink it too much. I think Nash will get the rotations right and I think these guys are just so good and so smart, that they will gel and figure it out together. They're all experienced, they're all veterans, and they're all still in their prime. They have a flexible coach and staff who want to win games flat out (as opposed to monitoring minutes like an authoritarian like Kenny did). They're all motivated with their causes, primarily coming from what fans/media are saying about them. I'm just so excited. It took me a day to process the Harden deal with the loss... but once I convinced myself it was the right move and then saw last night the results, I'm over the moon.

Dinwiddie is one of my favorite Nets and I felt it was going to hurt our depth, ALL YEAR, when we lost him. But after seeing Bruce Brown ball, that was another brilliant trade by Sean Marks and I'm confident Brown will fill the Dinwiddie roll in the second unit without the Nets missing a beat. Brown reminds me of Dinwiddie, a lot. He could start for a lot of teams that don't have superstars like Kyrie, Harden and a sniper like Harris.

[ecuhus1981]

Every player had a plus in this game except for Jordan lol. When he was on the floor they were -3. Need a solution for this. He was horrible

DJ deserves all the hate he receives, but isn't it common knowledge that he struggles against stretch bigs?
Vuc is top 5 stretch big in the league, in the echelon of AD, KP, KAT. He will get his numbers no matter what kind of defense thrown at him. JAfro boy couldn't have stopped Vuc's pick'n pop game. Vuc was always the best player on the floor during the Milwaukee-Orlando series in the bubble.
Overall, I liked how DJ played today. His short-roll with KD, his passes to cutting Harris, slipping Shamet was quite telling about his confidence in his games. He will be fine once he develops chemistry with Harden, and starts box-out a couple more Drebounds.

Read on Twitter

He struggles against ANY sort of stretch big, not just top 5 ones. DeAndre can still look solid against teams with low-skill Cs like NYK. But if you can dribble, pass or shoot outside of 10 feet, you can win a matchup against Jordan.

His effort has risen a tick lately, and I actually thought his hedges and stunts tonight were appropriate. He's just sooo limited by his declining mobility. DJ's level of play has always been predicated on otherworldly athleticism. He still wants to play like he's 23, but he's 32. That's why brilliant passers still have trouble reading his lob cadence, unlike a decade ago when he could leap out of the gym. Now, he has the above-the-rim catch radius of a lily pad.

Oh well, 1st world problems of an awesome team. DeAndre is keeping his attitude in check no matter his role unlike last season, so let's hope that continues.

[Wow Awesome]

KD: 42 Points, 4 Rebounds, 5 Assists, 61% FG.

Harden: 32 Points, 12 Rebounds, 14 Assists, 4 Steals, 44% FG.

No practice needed.

Welcome to NetsWorld

Watch on YouTube

With Harden you’re gonna want to start using TS% to grade his efficiency. He scores a lot with free throws on drives. And 3’s. So his layups turn to free throws, and a large part of his FGs come from 3’s, which naturally are a lower percentage shot.

So if you simply look at FG%, he might only be shooting 44%, but look at his TS% and it might be 62%.

He’s extremely efficient in his scoring, but people don’t know that if they just look at FG%.

[LOUiS-D]

Din: "It took me a while to learn DJ's lob cadence. Now instead of being a guaranteed turnover only 90% of the lobs result in a turnover"

[Hello Brooklyn]

I still think you guys are too harsh on Jordan.

There are plenty of bigs who can't really switch out. I've seen Rudy Gobert get played out of playoff series.

There are not many Centers like Vucevic in the league. Its just a bad matchup for him.

When you put him against a traditional Center he will do well like he did vs the Knicks.

Otherwise I think go small and play Green at the 5.

[Claud]

If our defensive strategy is SWITCHING then guess what? DJ is the worst type of big for that type of scheme.

Slow footed, can't recover, can't cover, gets out-position, lazy, etc.

It sucks to see how much he's fallen.

I was hoping he'd have more in the tank but to me he looks at most like a 15mpg backup center at this point.

VERY LIMITED on both ends.

Even the rook Perry outplayed him on this game. If Clax wasn't injured he'd also be eating a lot of his minutes.

Seems like the coaching staff has settled with small ball with KD/Green at 4/5 to finish out games since DJ is unreliable.

LOVED what I saw from Harden. KD + Harden is going to be insane to watch. SO MUCH FUN.

I hope Kyrie is ready to go tomorrow and drops 50 on them.

[MrDollarBills]

I still think you guys are too harsh on Jordan.

There are plenty of bigs who can't really switch out. I've seen Rudy Gobert get played out of playoff series.

There are not many Centers like Vucevic in the league. Its just a bad matchup for him.

When you put him against a traditional Center he will do well like he did vs the Knicks.

Otherwise I think go small and play Green at the 5.

At this point his minutes will be match up dependent. Reggie Perry should be firmly cemented in the rotation