The Brooklyn Nets Are an Embarrassment

The Brooklyn Nets are 1-5, with a net rating that makes even the Los Angeles Lakers look down at them with pity. Their 30th-ranked defense looks hopeless. The offense that was supposed to be their saving grace is statistically just average and aesthetically tepid. Brooklyn’s starting five stinks and its depth is either too young or one-dimensional to positively contribute on both ends.

Thanks to a critically thin frontcourt, the Nets rank dead last in defensive rebounding rate and can’t utilize Ben Simmons (more on him later) at the 5 as much as they probably should. When he plays next to another non-shooting big, Brooklyn’s spacing is compromised. But even though moving Simmons to center may loosen things up, doing so will exacerbate the team’s more significant weaknesses on the other end.

It’s a frustrating roster despite the big names. On paper, they can make a deep playoff run. In reality, they’re the basketball team equivalent of George Costanza braving the winter cold in a Russian sable hat while neglecting the importance of a coat. To put this imbroglio into perspective: Kevin Durant is averaging 32 points per game, making over half his shots, and posting a career-high usage rate. He’s also minus-67 in 225 minutes. That’s this season’s fifth-worst plus/minus, among 436 players who qualify.

If these problems sound like a lot, they are. But compared to the unresolved chemistry and identity issues that stem from Brooklyn’s willingness to be led by three highly volatile and unsteady superstar personalities, they also seem peripheral.

Kyrie Irving, once primarily known as a supremely gifted basketball virtuoso, can now be most accurately described as a crass, incoherent provocateur, not only prone to believing every conspiracy he absorbs online but also motivated to share them with his millions of followers, regardless of how baseless or hurtful the beliefs might be. On Saturday, as he fielded questions about his decision to tweet a link to the 2018 documentary Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, a film that endorses antisemitic messaging, he was antagonistic and defiant.

“I’m not going to stand down on anything I believe in,” Irving said. “I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.” It’s hard to take any NBA franchise that employs him seriously at this point.

How the Nets got here—as an on- and off-court embarrassment—can be hard to digest, but it’s easy to understand. They’ve spun through so many different iterations since Durant and Irving first climbed aboard and set fire to the self-sacrificing culture that attracted them in the first place. The initial James Harden trade was a seismic deal that set the wheels in motion, costing Brooklyn three first-round picks, four pick swaps, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen (painfully ideal for these Nets), Taurean Prince, and Rodions Kurucs.

The early returns led to, literally, the greatest…