NBA Rumors: Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant Would Make Nets ‘Interesting’ But Not ‘Great,’ Says Colin Cowherd
After ending their three-year playoff drought, the Brooklyn Nets revealed their ambitious plan to build a roster that can legitimately contend for the NBA championship title in the 2019-20 NBA season. Entering the 2019 NBA offseason with enough salary cap space for two max slots, the Nets succeeded in acquiring Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in free agency. After giving Irving and Durant max contracts, the Nets also managed to convince veteran center DeAndre Jordan to sign a four-year, $40 million deal.
The Nets may still have plenty of roster spots to fill, but with the “Big Three” of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and DeAndre Jordan, it’s easy to understand why most people are already starting to consider them a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference. In the recent episode of The Herd With Colin Cowherd, which is currently posted on Twitter, Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports agreed that the arrival of Irving and Durant made the Nets an “interesting” team, but he believes that it’s still too early to call them “great.”
“Don’t confuse interesting with great,” Cowherd said, as quoted by NESN. “I think Brooklyn will be interesting. I never think Kyrie, Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie, and DeAndre Jordan will be great. This is an organization that nobody’s ever paid attention to. So they have a new outfit and a parrot on their shoulder and a cool hat and they’ll walk into the party now because the Knicks whiffed, and they’re going to be fascinating. But they’re never going to be great. Kyrie Irving has missed 66 games in three years and has never proven to be easy to coach or a great leader without LeBron (James). KD has missed 48 games in three years.”
Kevin Durant ($164 million) and Kyrie Irving ($141 million) are both signing with the Nets on four-year deals, @wojespn reports pic.twitter.com/2prLCJSWU2
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) June 30, 2019
Colin Cowherd cited several reasons why the Nets are still far from being a great NBA team. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving may have known each other for years but as first-time teammates, they will still need to work on their chemistry on the court. Also, Cowherd thinks that Durant and Irving’s ability to stay healthy will be a major concern for the Nets.
Aside from the impact of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the Nets, Colin Cowherd also questioned Brooklyn’s decision to sign DeAndre Jordan to a long-term deal. At 30, Jordan undeniably has plenty of gas left in his tank, but the Nets currently have young center Jarrett Allen, who managed to establish an impressive performance last season, averaging 10.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks on 59.0 percent shooting from the field.
As of now, all things are in the hands of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, DeAndre Jordan, and the Nets to prove their doubters wrong. However, Nets’ fans will be needing to wait a little longer to see Durant play as he’s expected to spend most of the 2019-20 NBA season recovering from an injury.
