Opinion | Where Brooklyn Nets’ ‘Big Three’ ranks among all-time trios
Joe Perrino, Sports Editor
It’s almost like the second coming — in basketball form — of The Beatles.
The Brooklyn Nets shook up the basketball world Jan. 14 by acquiring James Harden, one of the most offensively skilled players in the history of the NBA, to combine with an already strong duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — also two of the most offensively skilled players in the history of the NBA. That’s three of the top 15 players in the world.
So this could be the most talented accumulation of players on one team to date, right?
Nope.
The phrase “Big Three” is thrown around in basketball discourse quite often, referring to three All-Star-caliber players on a single team. Its origins can be traced all the way back to the 1960s, with the Boston Celtics’ Hall of Fame trio of Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Tom Heinsohn, and was popularized by the championship-winning Miami Heat teams of the early 2010s, who boasted LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
So where does the Harden-Durant-Irving triumvirate rank all-time? Perhaps fittingly, third.
Oh, they’ll certainly fill it up on offense. The basket, that is, not Harden’s stomach. They could easily put up the highest scoring numbers as a trio the NBA has ever seen. But defensively, they won’t even be able to guard a parked car. Harden has played nine games for the Nets, and the team overall has the fifth-worst defense in the NBA as measured by points allowed, as of Jan. 31.
The 2017 Warriors, featuring Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Durant and the legendary 1996 Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, were both lockdown defensive teams. That’s the primary reason why they rank higher than this Nets supergroup, for now.
Yet there’s another reason the modern-day Nets might fall out of the top three entirely. Despite this group’s individual brilliance, they all boast similar styles on offense. Harden and Irving are ball-dominant guards, which means they heavily control the offense and create their own shots in isolation. Seldom do you see these two run around the court and try to get open without the ball in their hands, and Durant isn’t particularly active in that way either. They can each take turns running the offense, but the Nets’ attack may stagnate without enough ball movement each possession.
Meanwhile, the ‘17 Warriors had selfless players who were more than happy to move around without the basketball and pass up good shots for great ones. The ‘96 Bulls had their roles figured out — Jordan as a scorer, Pippen a facilitator and Rodman a rebounder.
So at the end of the day, perhaps this new band won’t be similar to the Beatles at all; they might not end up creating any more harmony than Ringo Starr did with his solo albums.