When the Brooklyn Nets acquired Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics, the team instantly became a juggernaut in the Eastern Conference.
Joining Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez, the amount of talent on the team was almost overwhelming, but not without some questions. Most notably, many wondered if a combination of Johnson and Pierce – who is turning 36 in October – would be good enough defensively against some of the better teams they will have to face in the playoffs. It’s an issue they had to address, and it was addressed in a big way on Thursday when it was announced that the Nets have come to an agreement to sign forward Andrei Kirilenko. Here is how TNT analyst Steve Kerr reacted to the news:
For a team that needed defensive help in the worst way, I don’t think the Nets could have done any better this offseason than AK47 and KG.
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerrTNT) July 11, 2013
Questions for Nets are age & chemistry.On paper they’re now title contenders, but as we saw with last year’s Lakers, the pieces have to fit.
— Steve Kerr (@SteveKerrTNT) July 11, 2013
Kerr is right in saying that the pieces have to fit, but the situation for the Nets is hardly comparable to that of the Los Angeles Lakers of last season, mainly because of the difference in the amount of reliable depth on the bench. Aside from a 36-year-old Antawn Jamison, the Lakers didn’t have any notable veterans to rely on when the starters were injured or needed a breather. That’s obviously not the case for the Nets, who now have Kirilenko, Terry, Andray Blatche and other reliable players to support the starting lineup. They also don’t have to deal with any injuries to critical players to begin the season the way the Lakers had to deal with a limited Dwight Howard from the jump.
Brooklyn may go through an experimental phase to begin the season, but the current make of the team is miles better than the team that won 49 games last season. With the totally-unexpected addition of Kirilenko, who brings so much versatility on both ends of the floor, they just may have become the team to beat in the East.
Tweet of the Night: Kyrie Irving welcomes Andrew Bynum
Brooklyn SHOULD be considered “the team to beat in the East”. Why then isn’t the Media talking about Brooklyn, yet still talking about the Lakers and the Dwight Howard which is over 1 week old?
The obvious answer is that the Media is biased and couldn’t care less about the Brooklyn Nets. The Knicks may have gotten worse this off season. I guess only when there is documented evidence of growing Brooklyn fan support in the NY area and Nationally, will the Media properly recognize the Nets.
Will be interesting to see how many Nationally televised games Brooklyn has this season.
They deserve to be in the running for most of any team.