Irving is less of a scoring threat than the other two given his size and efficiency, but he also isn’t known to contribute a whole lot away from the ball or via the little things a third option is tasked with. If he took on the third-option role, it would probably look like him getting the Nets into their offense, then getting into motion a la Tony Parker in the Spurs heyday, and getting a lot of his looks via spot-ups, quick hit pick-and-rolls and late shot clock bailout isolations.
Harden is neck-and-neck with Durant as a scorer, like Irving needs the ball in his hands, but is the most effective distributor of the two. If he’s willing to take on his coach’s mantle and be a super-passer, focusing on creating for the rest of his team, he’d be deadly in a whole new way.
Durant, despite being the best player on the team, may be the most natural fit to take a step back offensively given how he worked to fit into Golden State’s system and is much more versatile than his counterparts. He can work out of the mid-post, spot up, and unlike Harden or Irving, be a threatening roll or pop man.
Whoever ends up having to pass up some of their usual attempts, they’ll get their looks leading bench units or sharing the court with just one of their fellow stars. Nash will stagger his stars and try to get them to fully commit to his system when they’re sharing the court. It’s off the tip and down the stretch when the three will need to coexist, and Nets fans should prepare to wait on an answer to this fundamental question. Harden is joining without having gone through Nets training camp and most superteams take a good amount of games before they begin to gell.
Once they do, things get scary. Other NBA big threes usually featured a non-shooter, such as Kevin Garnett for the 2008-2012 Celtics and Dwyane Wade for the 2011-2014 Heat. All three of Brooklyn’s stars can shoot, dribble and pass with the best of them, making them uniquely dangerous. If they buy into not settling for the “your turn, my turn” routine and are screening, cutting and moving, there’s likely not a team that can slow down that offense. But perhaps what truly sets this roster apart is who the three stars have around them.
The 2017-18 Warriors’ “Death Lineup” ran Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Durant and Draymond Green. Compare that to Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie (when healthy), Harden, Joe Harris and Durant. Obviously the latter is only deadly on one side of the ball, but that five is about as unguardable a lineup as imaginable. Swap Dinwiddie for a Jeff Green or DeAndre Jordan and you add some bulk up front without giving up much offense.
Harris, Dinwiddie and Green opens up this team’s potential. That the Nets can play two of one of the league’s best shooters/role players, a 20-point-per-game scorer and a do-it-all swing forward with their three stars is tremendous. For context, Durant, Harris and Irving, when on the court together, had the Nets scoring at a 118.4 points per 100 possessions clip in 157 minutes this season. That would rank second in the league by a hair, and trails the Dubs’ Death Lineup by just half a point. Add Harden to that mix and you get the picture.
Unfortunately this ridiculous combination will only be subject to conjecture until we see them on the court - once the trade is finalized and Irving returns from his absence. Add around 20 games for them to mesh and Harden to get into better shape, and we won’t get to see this team at its full strength for some time, assuming Nash is able to wrangle them into a cohesive unit.
However if the pieces align, we’re not just looking at the league’s best offense, but maybe the most potent scoring team in NBA history.
