Getty James Harden #13 of the Brooklyn Nets warms up before game seven of the Eastern Conference second round against the Milwaukee Bucks at Barclays Center on June 19, 2021.
Brooklyn Nets All-Star James Harden had a disappointing end to his 2021 playoff run. After being acquired by Brooklyn from the Houston Rockets in a blockbuster trade in January, Harden and the Nets were widely viewed as the favorites to win the 2021 NBA title. But a hamstring injury to Harden in the opening minutes of their second-round series with the Milwaukee Bucks compromised his play in the series which they lost in 7 games. But this year Harden is back and healthy. And he and the rest of the Nets veterans are looking to get back into game shape.
“Yeah, and I’ve been doing individual workouts and conditioning and things like that. But five-on-five competition is totally different than working out individually. So, the more we can get five-on-five games and build our conditioning up. And not just myself, our entire team. … I feel like we’re behind a little in [that] sense,” Harden said per Brian Lewis of the “New York Post.” “We haven’t let any young guys play. We’ve just been playing; all vets are trying to get in shape and get some continuity and get to know each other.”
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James Harden Details the State of the Nets Team Chemistry
This offseason was a busy one for Nets’ general manager Sean Marks and his front office. Brooklyn will bring in quite a few new faces from their free agency pickups such as Paul Millsap, Patty Mills, and James Johnson. Harden is putting the responsibility on himself to start the process of building team chemistry off the court.
“I’ll try to get guys together for dinners and hangouts more often, just so we can get to know each other outside of the court. We’ve got a fairly quiet group. Most of the guys are to themselves; they stay in their own little shells. It’ll be nice to get them out, open up a little bit, even myself,” Harden said to the “New York Post.”
“I’m not that loud, but … I’m more loud than anybody on this team, like Paul [Millsap], LaMarcus [Aldridge], Patty [Mills], [Kevin Durant], you’ve got a lot of guys who are just to themselves. So, it’s my job to open them up a little bit more.”
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Unvaccinated Players May Not Face Fines for Missed Games
While Harden focuses on building up the Nets team chemistry off of the court a bigger issue faces them. That issue being who will be on the court with them as their All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving has elected to remain unvaccinated. Kyrie’s reluctance to get vaccinated could cost him $381,000 for each game he sits out. However, Michele Roberts, head of the NBA players union says that stipulation was never agreed upon.
“We’ll see about that,” Roberts said of the proposed game fines per NetsDaily. “They’ve been reporting that we’ve agreed that if a player who was not able to play because of his non-vaccination status, they could be docked (pay). We did not agree. The league’s position is that they can. We’ll see. If we get to that point, we’ll see.”
If we have learned anything about Kyrie during his Nets’ tenure it is that he is often unwilling to move off of his stance. If Irving is going to be out for an extended period this season, the Nets building team chemistry may be even more imperative than Harden previously thought.
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