The Durant, Harden and Kyrie Nets: watch out for memes

As soon as the Nets assembled their new big three atómico, in fact as soon as there were rumors that the bombshell, began a brainy race to see who predicted more accurately, with more layers of analytics, a fall that will be, if it occurs, thunderous to surely historical levels. And more in this NBA of gossip, drama and social networks. The study levels go so deep that they end up causing 180-degree turns in the opinions at street level: whoever transfers his great star has a bright future, many draft rounds; infinite possibilities. The future is what we imagine it to be… until it becomes present. And whoever gets a decisive player has the problemón of having to win in the short term, accommodate personalities, polish rotations by adjusting to salary cap, shudder thinking that he has trusted everything to today and that tomorrow, perhaps, there will be nothing left.

It happened before last season: Anthony Davis left for the Lakers traded by New Orleans Pelicans, a team whose future was recognized, young promises and draft capital, intoxicating. The Lakers, meanwhile, had to pair an untested Davis in the upper echelons of the playoffs with a perhaps aging LeBron. Plus a rebound coach, Frank Vogel, and a patchwork squad serving the stars. This temerity was worth a ring, the first in ten years for the Angelina franchise, and the pole position in this season’s race. The Pelicans are 34-49 since they lost Davis and filled with the future.

This is the reality: Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden are three complicated personalities, players who have left bounced of places almost anyone else would dream of being. From the glory and the millions of the new Warriors of San Francisco to the history and the flags on the roof of the Garden in Boston. Durant turned down Curry, Irving turned down LeBron and Harden didn’t get Dwight Howard or Chris Paul or Russell Westbrook as teammates. They have a rookie coach, Steve Nash, and a rickety side. No defense, no rebound, hardly any dirty work. Yes, the collapse can be bombastic.

But the truth is that the Lakers have just shown it, when talent finds its way, talent wins. Surely this project of the Nets is short fuse, unable to be sustained in the medium or long term. But what if you find the cooking point for a few months, just enough to charge like a rhino on this wide-open Eastern Conference? Durant, Harden and Irving are colossal scorers, all three among the best attacking weapons in all of NBA history.. And at the head, let’s not forget, is a Kevin Durant who is a unique specimen, a specimen made in a mold that no other player fits. On its roof, one of the best ever. Fearsome with any accompaniment, unimaginable ceiling if Irving leaves behind his mental excursions and Harden learns to handle where he will not be rey left, like in Houston. What their union suggests is enough to applaud the Nets’ moves. and to be careful with jokes, memes and fatalistic prophecies. If they fail, the Nets will be a splendid corpse. But if they do, there will be no more threatening rival for the Lakers’ throne. He factor X, nothing is really that complicated, it is always the same: if ordered, the talent wins.