After having to send a king’s ransom to the Houston Rockets last January to land nine-time All-Star James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets were not expected to be major players in free agency. The asking price for the 2017 NBA Most Valuable player cost Brooklyn the vast majority of their young core. And having to pay three All-Stars in Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving, the majority of the Nets salary cap had been spoken for heading into the summer.
Even with the funds in the Nets’ bank account being so scarce, they still managed to land some key pieces to their roster this offseason that could pay dividends in the long run. One of those pieces is their newly signed forward James Johnson, who will surely add to their toughness on the defensive end.
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James Johnson Goes Golfing With D’Angelo Russell
Johnson spent last season between New Orleans and Dallas but the season prior played 14 games with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He averaged 12.0 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game for Minnesota in 2020. Johnson was recently spotted out with his former Timberwolves teammate and All-Star point guard D’Angelo Russell getting in a game of golf together during their downtime in the offseason.
New Net James Johnson went golfing with former Net D’Angelo Russell today.
Johnson & Russell were teammates in Minnesota.
(🎥 dloading/IG)
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Russell Helped Build Nets Super Team
Russell’s ties to the Nets extend way further than his relationship with Johnson. In fact, you could argue that Russell is directly responsible for the super team that the Nets have constructed up to this point.
‘D-Lo’ was the main piece in the sign and trade that brought Durant to the Brooklyn Nets from the Golden State Warriors in the summer of 2019 and sent the former Nets All-Star to the Bay. During his breakout season with the Nets, Russell averaged 21.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game during the 2018-19 season.
Dinwiddie Believes Nets at Full-Strength Win the Championship
It is no secret that injuries belittled the Nets super team in 2020 which ultimately ruined their chances at the championship. That injury-plagued season started in just the third game of the season when Spencer Dinwiddie partially tore his ACL against the Charlotte Hornets and remained out for the rest of the season.
Dinwiddie won’t have an opportunity to run it back with the Nets after parting ways with Brooklyn to sign a three-year $54 Million contract with the Washington Wizards this summer. The Nets ultimately were eliminated from the playoffs in the second round by the defending NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks, but Dinwiddie believes that if the Nets were at full strength, the result would have been a lot different.
“You look at the Nets roster, you’ve got KD, Harden, Kyrie, and then me being able to fit in a lot of places and Joe being able to shoot it, I have no doubt we would have been able to win a championship last year,” Dinwiddie said per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “It just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
Spencer Dinwiddie’s WHAT IF: “You look at the Nets roster, you’ve got KD, Harden, Kyrie, and then me being able to fit in a lot of places and Joe being able to shoot it, I have no doubt we would have been able to win a championship last year. It just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
In a condensed 2020 season, injuries are an issue that every team had to deal with last season. With every team coming back and being able to hit the reset button, the 2021 NBA season could end up being one of the best ones in recent memory.
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