By Alan Moen, Year 12
Brooklyn Nets star guard, Kyrie Irving, who refuses to be vaccinated for COVID-19, made his season debut last Wednesday after recently having been cleared to play during away games by the Nets, who are in need of extra players amidst the current outbreak of the coronavirus.
In mid-October, more than half the Nets roster was sidelined due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols, leading to a decision by Nets management to let Irving play during road games. However, he is still unable to play home games with New York’s vaccine mandate. Despite having an almost full roster during Irving’s debut, the Nets still went through with their decision to let him play, suggesting that the team’s decision is more about having Irving on the floor rather than using him as an extra player. Irving scored 22 points and had 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals in his debut, shooting 9 for 17 from the field, contributing to the Nets 129-121 win against the Indiana Pacers. Nets star forward and 11-time all-star, Kevin Durant has issued his support for Irving’s return, saying in a post-game interview that “It was amazing to have him out there” and that he “makes the game so much easier for everyone out there”. The third member of the Nets big three and 8-time all-star, James Harden, has also issued his support, posting on social media a photo of Irving captioned “good to have you back king”. On Irving’s return, Nets head coach Steve Nash commented “he’s so gifted and talented and you could see the rhythm was there, but it’s still an adaptation so we got to give him some space here as he transitions back to playing, but tonight he was big.”
Last season, the Nets’ big three posted an average point differential of +18.25 when sharing the floor, although in limited minutes, this bodes well for the Nets going forward. In addition, the return of Kyrie Irving allows coach Nash to rest Durant and Harden while Irving leads the bench lineups. Both Harden and Durant have become more injury-prone in recent years, Durant tearing his Achilles during the 2019 playoffs, and Harden suffering from a grade 2 hamstring injury during the 2020 playoffs, meaning that they would benefit from a lighter load and fewer minutes.
On the other hand, Irving’s return may end up messing with the team’s chemistry, as Irving has not been playing so far this season and will only be available for a little under half the season and not be available for practices in Brooklyn. “They already have an MVP candidate in Kevin Durant” commented U18 Veyrier starting shooting guard/small forward Jonathan Ram, currently in year 11 at LGB, suggesting that the Nets may survive without Irving, having two former league MVPs in James Harden and Kevin Durant. Irving’s inability to play during home games complicates the remainder of the Nets season, as if the current situation continues, a higher playoff seeding could possibly be negative, as they would be playing fewer road games. In addition, having such a high impact, high volume scorer constantly in and out of their lineups will be an ongoing challenge for the Nets to deal with, especially with all the new additions to their roster who have yet to play with Irving such as Patty Mills, James Johnson, and Paul Milsap. As Ram pointed out, the Nets may not even need Irving to still be title favourites. Irving’s impact on the team will most likely remain complicated for as long as his current situation continues and will be one of the major questions about the Nets title hopes going forward.
The return of Kyrie Irving, even if only for road games, will definitely help the Nets offensive in the regular season, (especially with the slump James Harden is in, even if Harden has seemed to have picked it up lately), but will not have as much of an impact as many might think. Having Kyrie bounce in and out of the lineup prevents proper chemistry from being established between him and the rest of the team, although this probably won’t affect the team noticeably as Kyrie’s skill set fits well on almost any team. In addition, it may become confusing for the team moving forward during the regular season because with him returning only for road games it might be almost a better idea for them to have a lower seeding and therefore fewer home games meaning that, in a way, Brooklyn will be punished if they play better. Moving forward they’ll have to decide what their plan is for the season. Another aspect of Kyrie’s return, which seems to be going under the radar for many people, is how Kyrie shifts the Nets defense. He was viewed last year by stats, such as defensive box plus minus and defensive ratings, as a slight negative on defense and even more so during the few games he’s played this season, which means he’ll be hurting the defense of an already lacking team. So far this season the Nets’ defensive rating has been serviceable, but really the numbers don’t show how lucky the Nets have been as they’re near the top of the league in opponent missed open 3 pointers, and give up a fair number of them. Once these shots start failing, or if a team is able to game-plan around them in the playoffs, they may start to struggle, especially without their big three on the floor the whole season (or series). Even though there may be some defensive lineup, Kyrie’s return is an overall positive for the Nets and couldn’t have come at a better time with Durant being sidelined due to an MCL sprain. Kyrie’s return gives them more firepower and a tough shot maker to pair alongside Harden, who has begun to look like himself again, in addition to all the great players such as LaMarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills.
