Getty Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving teamed up on the Nets.
The Brooklyn Nets have gems in Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Along with DeAndre Jordan, Irving and Durant signed deals with the Nets last offseason.
Durant didn’t play this season and Irving played some before shutting his season down with what the Nets called a shoulder impingement.
Next season will be a different story and the world better be ready. “They are thick, they are tight. Like, they are really tight.” ESPN’s Jay Williams told me on the Heavy With Scoop B Show.
Williams, the Chicago Bulls’ second pick in the 2002 NBA Draft out of Duke University won an NCAA Championship with the Duke Blue Devils in 2001 under head coach, Mike Krzyzewski and was the National college player of the year in 2002.
These days, the Plainfield, New Jersey native is hosting a new daily radio and TV show on ESPN called, “Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin,” alongside Keyshawn Johnson and Zubin Mehenti each morning. He likes Irving and Durant’s Nets future. “If you were to ask me as a guessing man, it’s going to be Kyrie and KD against the world,” says Williams.
“I think Kevin’s gonna have his back. I think Kyrie’s gonna have Kevin’s back. It’s going to be like the bad boys in Brooklyn.”
Did he just say Bad Boys? As in the Detroit Pistons of the 80s?
Here’s a quick history lesson: The Bad Boys era of Pistons basketball were a force to be reckoned with.
Guided by head coach, Chuck Daly, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Vinnie Johnson, Bill Laimbeer, John Salley and Dennis Rodman, the Pistons were a talented, rugged bunch and they had the hardware to prove it.
The Pistons started Johnson, Thomas and Dumars at positions one through three.
Thomas was listed at 6’1, Dumars at 6’3 and Johnson at 6’3. Some may consider that a three point guard lineup.
Comparatively, the Brooklyn Nets are looking to assemble a championship caliber team with two viable point guards in Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyrie Irving.
One might argue that the two could start together with Kevin Durant, Caris LeVert, DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen filling out Brooklyn’s starting five.
Jay Williams sees the comparison. “I do because I think this team, in the market that they’re going to be in, in the back yard of Brooklyn, the press is going to try their damndest to break that team apart,” he tells the Heavy With Scoop B Show.
“Every little thing. Every little thing. If it was Kyrie having a smirk. If it was Kevin waiving the coach off. If it’s Spencer Dinwiddie being mad about playing time. How does that affect Caris LeVert, who — his stock has skyrocketed when he was in the bubble. Skyrocketed.
“So, now, you have four guys on the verge of being All-Stars. … And the Knicks aren’t good. you don’t think people are going to try to rip the Nets apart? So I really do believe that regardless of whatever happens, they’re going to be as thick as blood. They’re going to stay together. And if the ship goes down, they’re all going to go down together.”