Yes, the Nets Can Win a Championship with No Defense
The Nets’ “big three” are so good offensively that they can overcome the team’s weak defense. Photo: NBA
BY JEMARI REGIS
The phrase “defense wins championships” goes plenty of ways.
It signifies the importance of the not-so highlighted side of the court, the defensive end. No matter how much talent you have on the offensive end, you cannot make it far in basketball if you cannot play defense.
For years that’s been the case. But the Brooklyn Nets are giving that argument a run for its money.
As pretty much all NBA fans know, the Nets have the biggest “three” throughout the league, with Kyrie Irving, James Harden, and Kevin Durant. This obviously looks amazing on paper, but offense can be a distraction. What about their defensive effort as a team? Or even individually? Well, let’s start with what we see on the court.
On offense, the three superstars demand the ball, knowing that they can each individually put up 30 points a night and help their team win. But on the defensive end, we don’t see much.
Numbers wise, the Nets’ big three individually seem like solid defenders. Throughout Kyrie Irving’s career, he has averaged 1.3 steals and almost one block a game. James Harden's career steals average is almost two a game, and Kevin Durant’s steals and blocks average are both about one a game. Not bad on a stat sheet, but when it comes to what we see on the court, you can sense a sort of laziness, bad communication, and a lack of effort. As a result, the team is 22nd in the league in points allowed.
This can really hurt a team, and in the NBA’s long history, we have never seen a team win an NBA championship without being able to contribute as a collective on the defensive end. However, we have also never seen a more complete, offensively dangerous team than the Brooklyn Nets.
When Irving, Durant, and Harden are all healthy and playing together, offensively they are unstoppable. There is no team in the league that can beat the Nets at their best. Not one single team. These three superstars can easily combine for 90 to 100 points a game.
Previous champions, like the Cleveland Cavaliers with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, or the Golden State Warriors, with Durant, two-time MVP Stephen Curry and lights-out shooter Klay Thompson, were not as good a team offensively as the Brooklyn Nets are right now.
Plus, the players around them, including young center Nicolas Claxton, skilled guard Bruce Brown, and veterans Jeff Green and DeAndre Jordan, can be a big help on the defensive end when one of the team’s three superstars is not on the court.
So yes, the Brooklyn Nets at this moment are the best team in the world. When healthy.
If -- and only if -- their three stars are at 100 percent throughout the playoffs, they will win a championship with absolute ease. Even after a year of on-and-off injuries and other absences by all three, the Nets still have the second best offensive rating in the NBA, behind the Utah Jazz, who are the number one seed in the Western Conference.
But stats only tell half the story. The Nets are far more unstoppable than the Utah Jazz offensively, and in a seven game series, they would come out with a win in just five games because of how many options they have. The Nets display unselfishness, fundamentals, coachability, and many more simple but effective things that every team needs to win a championship.
Being in the East Coast also gives Brooklyn the best chance at coming out on top. The Celtics, Bucks, Raptors and other contending Eastern Conference teams have fallen to the Nets when Brooklyn was not at 100 percent. Those were important games, as they were all fighting for the number one seed for the playoffs.
Knowing this is true, the Nets can definitely beat all of those Eastern Conference contenders when their entire big three is playing. And whomever they end up playing in the NBA Finals will be up for an absolute challenge.