Denver Nuggets rookie Christian Braun is quickly earning the trust of back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic … [+] with his high IQ, fundamentally solid play.
Denver Post via Getty Images
At first glance on the basketball court, there may not seem to be a whole lot in common between Denver Nuggets rookie Christian Braun, a defensive wing known for his toughness, athleticism and hustle, and his second-year teammate Bones Hyland, a long-range sharpshooting guard who’s a hooper to the core.
But one trait which it’s looking increasingly likely that they share is that both may ultimately prove to have a substantially higher on-court value in their NBA careers than the late first round position of the draft picks they were chosen with might suggest.
Simply put, the Nuggets may have landed themselves significant draft steals in two consecutive years.
Hyland was selected with the 26th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft after an impressive two-year run with the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, and upon joining the Nuggets, wasted little time in quickly becoming a beloved fan favorite with both his infectious personality and the positive on-court impact he created for Denver as a rookie, especially flourishing after taking over backup point guard duties midway through the season.
Braun, drafted with the 21st pick in June, and now just three games into his professional NBA career, is already making a significant mark for Denver, particularly on the defensive end, and has done so sooner than many expected even considering the championship pedigree he earned earlier this year with the Kansas University Jayhawks.
Before being drafted, both players were projected by most prominent draft analysts to be picked in the late-first or early-second round, and both were indeed eventually selected in the 20s, near the upper end of that range. But certainly in the case of Hyland (with a much larger sample of games at this point), there’s a strong case to be made that he in actuality is at minimum a late-lottery caliber talent who merited (but did not receive) on of those coveted NBA draft green room invitations.
And early as it is, now Braun as well is showing signs that he might have more fittingly been drafted higher than he actually was.
And based on the results from a collection of mock 2021 “redrafts” in which draft analysts go through the process of re-selecting the class in the order they “should have” been chosen in retrospect, Hyland has indeed performed at a level where he’s now esteemed as a significantly higher quality player than the 26th pick he was actually taken with.
Results for Bones Hyland in five 2021 NBA redrafts point to his being a definitive draft steal for … [+] the Denver Nuggets
Chart by Joel Rush, data via NBA, Bleacher Report, CBS, Rookie Wire and The Athletic
As the chart above shows, and average of five different 2021 redrafts lands Hyland on the cusp of lottery pick territory, just over 11 spots above his true draft position. This puts him squarely in “draft steal” territory, a status well-earned by his commendable play as a rookie which earned him a larger role this season.
And while it’s far too soon to do a similar re-draft exercise with the 2022 class, the nascent indications of the direction Braun’s developmental track is heading are nearly all pointing up in meaningful ways, and his level of NBA-readiness seems to be off the charts, even if a few youthful mistakes show up here and there.
“Christian Braun is a rookie who is growing up pretty quickly in this league,” head coach Michael Malone said after Denver’s recent home-opening win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. “It’s great to see him step in and shoot those shots with confidence.”
Those shots Malone refers to were a trio of three-pointers in Braun’s second-half stint against OKC, the first of which was his first made three in the NBA, but all of which were critical in helping the Nuggets stay afloat in what ended up being an uncomfortably close game.
“They made good passes, and [OKC] played off of me,” Braun said after the game. “Jok [Nikola Jokic] had skips to the corner. When Jok hits you with them skip passes, you have to shoot them.”
Malone expanded on how he had urged Braun to keep shooting: “When he came out, I said, ‘listen, make or miss, you have to take that shot because it’s a good shot and you work your ass off every day.’”
“And tonight, he stepped in with great confidence and that was fun to watch,” Malone added.
In addition to the value of Braun hitting his shots, something which will only help to solidify his place in Denver’s rotation, he has perhaps just as importantly very quickly begun earning the trust of back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic, which is critically essential for any player he shares the court with, as well as Malone and seasoned veterans like Jeff Green.
A huge part of gaining that trust from his teammates and coaches is just how smart, fundamentally sound, and within-the-flow Braun has proven to play nearly from moment one.
In the sequences below, for example, there are about 20 things he just “does right” as these plays unfold, from consistently feeding the ball to Jokic in the post, to getting straight to his (correct) spots on the floor, to denying the ball to his defensive assignment at the perimeter, to monitoring the passing lanes for the steal, to selflessly passing up worse shots to create better ones for his teammates, and much more, all in the span of about two minutes of playing time.
Although both Malone and Jokic have reputations (whether fairly earned or not) for having confidence issues with younger, less-experienced players, it surely seems they have both already opened the door to let Braun into their circle of trust.
In Malone’s case, this is in no small part because of Braun’s relentless effort, hustle and (importantly) effectiveness on the defensive end of the court, which was on full display in Denver’s hard-earned road win at the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
The fact that Malone entrusted Braun with guarding not only microwave scorer (and sometimes Nuggets-killer) Jordan Poole, but also two of the greatest shooters in NBA history in Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, speaks volumes about just how much faith he has in the rookie.
Last season, from January 28 onward when he took over the role as the Nuggets’ full-time backup point guard, Hyland averaged 11.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists with 2.1 made three-pointers on a .392 percentage from deep on his way to being named to the NBA All-Rookie second team.
Because so much of Braun’s impact and effectiveness on the court shows up more in the eye test than on the stat sheet, it’s hard to know at this early stage whether he will get the same kind of recognition as Hyland even if he qualitatively has just as good of a rookie season.
But one of my 2022-23 Nuggets predictions was that Braun would pass fellow wing Davon Reed in Denver’s rotation by the All-Star break, and judging by their minutes totals so far (41 and 19, respectively), he’s already ahead of schedule in cementing a regular spot. And assuming that continues, which is reasonable based on just how well he’s started his young NBA career, Braun should have every opportunity to prove that he, like Bones, was yet another Denver Nuggets draft steal.
But just a split second later, as the Warriors were still getting back in transition, Nikola Jokic inbounded the ball with a crosscourt heave — something Jokic admitted was “a risk” after the game.
It was one he was more than willing to take after Bones Hyland turned the ball over, leading to Poole’s bucket, and Jokic saw nothing but a swarm of Warriors jerseys.
“My guys had to be open,” Jokic said.
So he chucked the ball 85 feet to find a wide-open Bruce Brown, who complete the play with a dunk. That — and a pair of free throws a few seconds later — sealed the Nuggets’ 128-123 win Friday night.
Draymond Green said the Warriors weren’t caught sleeping on Jokic’s pass, but there was a lapse in communication. Usually, the Warriors want their center back underneath the other basket, but in this scenario the center was Green, and he was trapping.
“It’s an unfamiliar position for our guards. Guards don’t protect the basket,” Green said. “That’s something I could have communicated. I should have communicated that we got to make sure we have a man back, and that’s something we can learn from.”
Jokic finished the game with 26 points on 7-of-13 shooting, 12 rebounds and 10 assists — his 77th career triple-double. Jokic now has the second-most triple-doubles by a center in NBA history behind just Wilt Chamberlain (78).
Jokic scored or assisted on 50 Denver points, but it was his passing that stood out above his other stats.
“Honestly, we have eight years together now and [nothing surprises me],” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “So many big games, so many moments when he’s made the big play, the right play and a game-changing type of play. … His IQ is off the charts. He’s out there playing chess, and a lot of other guys are playing checkers.”
Against the Warriors, the Nuggets scored 24 points off Jokic’s passes on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-7 from 3. Three of his 10 assists came in transition, and six of them led to open looks.
Five different teammates scored off his passes, with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown benefiting the most.
Caldwell-Pope shot 3-of-5 off Jokic’s passes, while Brown went a perfect 4-of-4 including the winning dunk.
Before the game, Malone spoke his team’s need to build chemistry as the Nuggets welcomed eight new players, including Caldwell-Pope and Brown, and reintegrated Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
With that in mind, Malone has been challenging Jokic to take his leadership to the next level by not just playing by example, but by being vocal and teaching.
Three or four times on Friday, Malone said he saw Jokic grab the whiteboard during timeouts to explain to his new and younger teammates where he wants them on plays.
“If you ask Bruce and Kenny Pope, from afar they probably admired Jokic’s passing from playing against him. But it’s different watching than now you’re with him,” Malone said. “He makes the game so easy, but you have to be ready.”
The Nuggets headed into halftime having scored 70 points and up 18 on Golden State, but a patented Warriors third-quarter rush to pair with a strong fourth put them within eight with about five minutes to go.
Stephen Curry finished with 34 points on 10-of-22 shooting, while Andrew Wiggins added 23 points and eight rebounds and Draymond Green had 13 points and nine assists.
But Denver outscored the Warriors 9-4 in clutch time to seal their victory.
“Our second quarter was one of our best quarters in a long time against a quality opponent,” Malone said. “But down the stretch, there are so many things we need to clean up. … But it’s a hell of a win. We can savor it for about two and a half hours on the plane, and then tomorrow night we have our home opener.”
Here we go: The top 10 in our 2022-2023 League Pass Rankings! We revealed Nos. 30-11 on Tuesday, and you can read about the rankings formula there.
10. DALLAS MAVERICKS (35)
Look at this soul-snatcher:
That is the smile of someone who knows he has you. The Mavs’ offense is one-dimensional — Luka Doncic walks ball up, runs two-man game — but that dimension contains multitudes. The typical spread pick-and-roll pairs ball handler and rim-runner; Doncic can do that with any of Dallas’ bigs. He can make all the passes blindfolded.
Doncic’s size and comfort in the middle of the paint — the dead zone for some ball handlers — open up endless possibilities. He’s at his most predatory dragging smaller defenders into pick-and-rolls. Switch, and he mashes them in the post with smirking cruelty. (He took sadistic pleasure brutalizing Patrick Beverley in the 2021 playoffs.) Send help, and he picks you apart.
Even against like-sized defenders and traditional coverages, Doncic is a three-steps-ahead genius burrowing inside. His high-arching step-back is borderline unblockable, and he has hit 50% from floater range over the past two seasons — and a LeBron James-esque 73% at the rim last season.
The threat of those shots unlocks Doncic’s generational passing. He understands how every up-fake, pivot, and half-spin freaks help defenders into thinking they should swarm — and which passes any slight rotation might expose. Last season, he even started throwing straight backward overhead passes to pick-and-pop bigs. Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood must be ready at all times.
This is my favorite piece of Mavs art in ages:
The navy sings against the new white-washed floor.
The Lakers ranked No. 2 last season, but the idea of them — How will Russell Westbrook fit? — turned out to be way more interesting than the experience.
The Lakers played fast, but they were boring — unorganized, dispirited, lacking any cohesive identity. LeBron James remains the ultimate chessmaster, but there’s little reason to suspect the overall product will be much different. (Darvin Ham said this week he’s considering starting Anthony Davis at center, and leaning there would boost L.A.’s watchability. You can’t play Westbrook, LeBron, Anthony Davis, and a traditional center — even one with decent range like Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones. Don’t sleep on Jones’ passing!)
They scored this high only because of their art — including the league’s prettiest court — and the comedy category. Are Beverley and Westbrook really friends? Like, really? Or will latent tension boil over? Comedy can become pathos, and we reached that point with Westbrook last season when the Sacramento Kings’ blared “Cold as Ice!” on every bonked jumper and layup.
Will James engage pout mode once he breaks the scoring record if the Lakers are toast? James achieved peak eye-rolling sulkiness ahead of the 2018 trade deadline, when he realized the Cavs were dead barring a roster shake-up. It was bizarrely enthralling.
Thumbs up to these white throwbacks — replicas of the jerseys the team wore in their first-ever game, per league officials. They even have faux belt loops! Powder blue is always welcome.
The Wolves ranked first in pace and second in scoring efficiency after Jan. 1 last season. They have one blockbuster young star in Anthony Edwards, fast becoming a three-level scorer as his confidence soars on pull-ups and step-backs.
Edwards wants to dunk people into oblivion — the bigger, the better. He flies at the rim as if he thinks he can dunk through humans — that they will disintegrate beneath him.
One of the league’s keenest offensive tinkerers — Chris Finch — must figure out how to mesh Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in an unusual double-center look that has to work given the Wolves traded everything short of the old Metrodome baggie for Gobert.
Finch will get creative on defense, too. On some nights, the Wolves might flip-flop matchups — slotting Towns onto centers, and stashing Gobert elsewhere so he can act as roving shot-blocker. We might see glimpses of last season’s blitzing defense as a surprise adjustment.
Kyle Anderson weaponizes his slowness; defenders stumble ahead of his elongated moves, allowing Slow-Mo to saunter through creases. He snatches some of the league’s cleanest live-dribble steals. Jaden McDaniels still seems like a blank canvas, and looms as Minnesota’s swing factor. Jaylen Nowell jacks and struts with a gunslinger’s bravado. How will D’Angelo Russell — on an expiring contract — respond if Finch yanks him for Jordan McLaughlin in crunch time again?
The Wolves relegated their gaudy neon green to the trimmings on this pristine new jersey:
Standing ovation for the fangs extending down off the “M” and “V.”
PSST: Towns’ averages in 11 postseason games: 19 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 3.5 turnovers (gag!), and many, many silly fouls. He has three single-digit scoring games, plus a dud in last season’s play-in. It’s time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one-of-one. He evolves each season — more floaters, more screening in the pick-and-roll, snappier passing. He supplies highlights both preposterous and of the most visceral basketball violence. Antetokounmpo rising from underneath the rim, off two feet, and cramming on someone’s head is perhaps the rudest act in the sport.
I loved his recent speech about the importance of will over skill. It was once fashionable to compare Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons — enormous, turbocharged ball handlers with rickety strokes. What might Simmons accomplish if the Philadelphia 76ers surrounded him with shooters — as the Bucks have done for Antetokounmpo?
Even five years ago, before Antetokounmpo cracked the top five in MVP voting, the comparison failed the smell test. Antetokounmpo was bigger, faster, longer — better. Most of all, he was tougher. While Simmons’ struggles at the line turned into something of a phobia, Antetokounmpo kept coming — kept drawing contact, kept risking failure, kept improving. That’s will.
The Bucks are a fast-break machine — Four Steps or Less — but their half-court offense finished dead last in points per possession in the playoffs. Even with Khris Middleton out, that raised alarms internally. I suspect the Bucks will spend the regular season honing anti-switch devices on offense and experimenting with new looks on defense — including snuffing 3s after spending years living with above-the-break triples.
Who emerges as trustworthy playoff guys among George Hill, Jevon Carter, Joe Ingles, Jordan Nwora, and Serge Ibaka? If the answer is “no one,” the Bucks could face critical depth issues. How much Antetokounmpo at center will we see?
Once every few games, an opposing player annoys Jrue Holiday — and draws out Holiday’s playoff-level defense as punishment. What a nightmare.
Marques Johnson was a five-time All-Star, nailed a supporting role in “White Men Can’t Jump,” and is now one of the best analysts in any sport. Not fair.
Boston’s stars offer different stylistic ingredients, but they don’t always synthesize on offense. The defense … holy hell. They are huge, mean, smart — a switching forcefield. (Marcus Smart and Blake Griffin have to wager on who takes the most charges, right?)
They are also strategically quirky. The Celtics clicked into place when they shifted their center — Robert Williams III — onto nonthreatening wings, unleashing him as a free safety.
Time Lord didn’t just reject shots. He obliterated them. He spiked some before they even left shooters’ hands — before they really became shots at all. Others, he smashed against the backboard with such force you almost expected them to become impaled in the glass. From mid-January on, Boston allowed 105.4 points per 100 possessions — four points stingier than the league’s No. 2 defense.
The Celtics became one of the greatest defenses of all time, even as smart opponents began exploring counters to Boston’s scheme — running Williams around off-ball screens, using more false actions. Expect more of that cat-and-mouse game now that opponents have had an offseason to study.
Boston found its flow on offense too. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Smart cooperated in more two-man actions — forcing switches Tatum and Brown could exploit. Tatum’s liquid grace and Brown’s straight-line power make for a perfect contrast. Derrick White added Spursian quick decision-making. (Update: He should be part of the Griffin-Smart charge-taking wager too!)
The Celtics’ green uniforms are maybe the best in sports, and they improved their historic court by removing the chunky white circle from underneath the leprechaun:
The tribute to Bill Russell is understated and noble.
Grant Williams never shuts up. Mike Gorman and Brian Scalabrine are tremendous. Boston is under championship pressure, with a coach — Joe Mazzulla — thrust into the spotlight under bad circumstances. What is Mazzulla about? How do the players respond?
5. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS (37)
You have to be good and watchable to rise here; the algorithm sees 50-win upside.
I don’t care if these guys shoot a single 3-pointer. I just want to see Zion Williamson pinballing to the rim, bodies flying everywhere after making even glancing contact with this linebacker phenom. He gets from arc to rim faster than a camera flash, out of every action: pick-and-rolls as screener or ball handler; post-ups in which he plows through victims like shorter Shaquille O’Neal, or spins around them like wider James Worthy; end-to-end rampages you almost feel through your screen. (The Pelicans with Williamson have played at ludicrous speed.)
The roster isn’t really built for it, but please, Willie Green, give us some Williamson at center!
Forget second jumps. Williamson has the league’s quickest third and fourth jumps. Pity the fools who box out Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas. Reserve them extra time in the cold tub, maybe the hospital.
CJ McCollum might put a defender on his butt at any moment. He connects complex dribbles — hesitation, crossover, pull-back — with unusual fluidity, and cans all variety of floaters with either hand. Brandon Ingram’s midrange arsenal is simpler, but almost as effective.
Larry Nance Jr. is all flare screens and twirling handoffs, and he’ll play tons of crunch-time center. Herbert Jones’ arms actually typed this column from New Orleans; instead of shooting 3s, should he just reach all the way from the arc and plop the ball in?
Jose Alvarado’s crouching, hide-and-seek backcourt steals are incredible theater. He’ll have ball handlers looking over their shoulders even when he’s not in the game. He is Keyser Soze.
The Pelicans are due some fresh art. The bench overflows with interesting players. Here’s hoping Dyson Daniels earns run.
4. DENVER NUGGETS (38)
Nikola Jokic might be the most inventive passer in basketball history, and is for sure No. 1 all time among bigs. He dares passes everyone else is scared to try — slips to cutters where the passing window is no bigger than the basketball itself.
Jokic imagines passes no one else sees — and then makes them. As he’s gotten in better shape, he’s added occasional dunks and tornado baseline spins.
The regular season is about finding the right balance of defensive schemes for Jokic. This is perhaps the biggest season in Nuggets history; they need everything in place for the playoffs.
Jokic has his pick-and-roll mind-meld partner back in Jamal Murray. Murray’s role in their two-man devastation has long been underrated. He’s an ace pull-up shooter with a knack for slick pocket passes that lead Jokic into open space.
They have the league’s prettiest and most varied give-and-go partnership. We see the classic — Murray bolting away from handoffs, and Jokic lofting him buttery goodness:
But they also turn routine pick-and-rolls into give-and-gos within that tricky midpaint area:
That is a mini masterpiece. In terms of both shot selection and process, Denver is a nice antidote to 3s-and-dunks spread-pick-and-roll hegemony. Murray’s Blue Arrow celebration is cool.
Michael Porter Jr. is perhaps the X factor of the season. Will he accept third-banana status? Kentavious Caldwell-Pope locks the starting five into place. Bruce Brown does the same for the bench, and gives Denver crunch-time lineup flexibility. Once every 10 games and out of absolutely nowhere, Jeff Green posterizes someone.
Are you worried about Denver’s bench offense? Bones Hyland isn’t.
3. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES (39)
Ja Morant is the new League Pass superstar. He is a hellacious rim-attacker, cocking it back and hammering pain onto larger humans; he jumped over and through Malik Beasley for the highlight of last season.
Morant’s sneering swagger set the tone for the team from day one. There is nothing fake about the Grizzlies’ puffed-chest arrogance. They do not conceive of themselves as the little guy challenging Goliaths. Trash-talking LeBron James is not, for them, unearned pluck. They believe they are Goliath, now.
Morant could chase points, dominate the ball, hunt the spectacular. Instead, he brings teammates with him — empowers them, uses the attention he draws to create shots for them. Morant is a whip-smart cutter, willing to cut as a decoy (or to catch lobs above the square). He slows down in transition, knowing trailers come open in his wake.
Memphis defends with ferocity — Dillon Brooks going chest to chest with all comers, everyone swiping at the ball. The Grizz forced heaps of turnovers, and blazed at the league’s second-fastest pace. Do not look away from the Memphis alley-oop machine.
Desmond Bane has borderline Ray Allen-level precision in his jumper. Remember when Steven Adams carried Tony Bradley — 6-10, 250 pounds — away from an altercation as if he were about to take Bradley to Suplex City? What a legend.
The young guys will get chances filling in for Jaren Jackson Jr. and departed veterans. I give it two games before an opposing announcer expresses shock at John Konchar’s leaping ability
Can you spot the subtle upgrade from last season’s court …
… to their new one?
They eliminated that silver-blue racing stripe along the baseline that always confused me.
2. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (40)
The Warriors came so close to reclaiming their No. 1 perch, with Draymond Green providing a new, unfortunate reason to tune in to Golden State’s basketball symphony.
Green’s punch might have been one hot-tempered man going through personal issues losing control, and slugging his trash-talking foil. It became more because we saw it, yes, but also because of the deeply human and almost literary arcs one could project onto it.
Green, in the final year of his contract, might be aging out of the dynasty he helped build. Jordan Poole, on the verge of his first massive deal, is a keystone in extending that dynasty beyond Green’s NBA lifespan. A decade ago, when this all started, Green was the low draft pick who roared — trash-talking his elders, challenging them, refusing to show deference. That is how Poole relates to Green now.
To win a title, there can be no fissures. There will be lingering tension over what happened last week. How will it manifest? How long will it last?
The potential basketball tragedy of all this — of contract realities and personality conflicts intruding upon this Bay Area basketball idyll — is that Green, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry should finish their careers together as Warriors. That is how it’s supposed to be. What they share is why we follow sports — an understanding of one another’s tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses so deep, they barely have to talk on the court. Every simple action between them contains a dozen counters, and they choose them in the moment, in sync, in step, always connected.
It is a bond of winks and nods that cannot form unless you share tens of thousands of reps at the highest level. And it is, still, beautiful to watch.
Andre Iguodala is part of their fabric too, and he gets another chance at a proper swan song. The army of lottery picks is in position to seize roles. Whether they are ready will go a long way to determining Golden State’s repeat chances. Jonathan Kuminga is at eye level with the rim before you even realize what’s happening.
Golden State is a top-five art team. Curry, Green, and Thompson will wear captain “Cs” on throwback jerseys — rare in the NBA.
These new alternates are nice:
The Warriors deal in bright yellow and blue. This clean navy look is a pleasing change, even it is eerily similar to the University of California, Berkeley color scheme. I like how the shorts echo the team’s bridge-wiring motif.
1. BROOKLYN NETS (41)
I considered invoking the Ian Eagle Corollary, which dates to the Joe Johnson “It’s not that bad here!” era and allows me to reduce the Nets score if the light-hearted categories — art, comedy — lift them higher than they deserve. I opted against it, and so the Nets three-peat as League Pass champions — which has really worked out for them in the Kevin Durant–Kyrie Irving era.
This team could be gone in 30 games — boring, bad, an entire era demolished. Irving could find new reasons to be the basketball player who doesn’t play basketball. Ben Simmons could melt — flinching at the threat of contact, wilting under Hack-a-Ben, holding a prolonged missed free throw contest with Nic Claxton. (Claxton is 6-of-25 from the line in the postseason.) All that could push Kevin Durant to renew his allegedly dormant trade request, at which point the Barclays Center may as well collapse into a sinkhole.
That’s the severe downside. The more likely downside is the Nets are run-of-the-mill good — a playoff team, but not strong enough to lift the stench of self-inflicted misery.
The journey to either of those bad places is disaster-movie riveting. Simmons hasn’t played a real game in 16 months; there is justified interest in every move he makes. Even that functional downside scenario features plenty of Irving and Durant, two flashbulb attractions.
Whatever your feelings about Irving, he is a show — a Maravichian dribbling magician with a bottomless bag of soft floaters and twisting layups. His lefty runner takes your breath away. Two seasons ago, when the Nets were quasi-functional, Irving was the one who got them running in transition.
Durant is one of the dozen greatest players ever, and perhaps the most well-rounded offensive force the game has ever seen. He is elite at literally every subsection of offense. He can assume any role, at any time. Even when Durant is raining pull-up fire, it might not be the classical beauty of his gangly game that draws you in. What really hits you in the gut — what mesmerizes — is the sheer invincibility of it, the way Durant exercises total dominion over everything from every place on the floor.
And that’s the upside. The soul-sapping melodrama can make you forget: This might work. They might be happy. They could be redeemed. They might be unstoppable on offense, Simmons tapping into his inner Draymond Green with endless shooting around him. They will take risks and innovate to survive on defense, and there is night-to-night joy in watching a team sink its teeth into that challenge.
The broadcast is as good as it gets, and the art is solid — including this alternate court, first revealed here, that matches the ABA-era stars-and-stripes uniforms the Nets are bringing back:
The differently colored painted areas — one blue, one red — are a gamble, but they work here.
