As we said last season, the Nets are still short of a historically strong team, and they still lack a complete tactical system, and a Harden can't solve the problem completely, and they better apply an offensive system such as a triangle offense or a Warrior system to balance the field potential between the Big Three and role players.
First of all, we review the history of the Nets.
The team won the Durant scramble, firstly because of absolute trust and second because of the promise to get Irving. From the perspective of team building, the Nets' move is a classic operation, once making the team the first team in the East. But with two superstars, it is not enough to compete for the title, and the team needs to find a system that really suits itself in a short period of time.
When we look at the history of the NBA, it is very difficult to really find or develop a top-level tactical system. Such as the Princeton system, the Spurs system, the triangle offense, the Warriors system and the like, all need to be favorable at the right time. These teams generally operate for many years to form good system characteristics, and it is generally not feasible to rush to win the championship. Looking at the Nets from a historical perspective, this team is not much special, and there is nothing special about the quality of the stars and the quality of the stars in the above system, so in theory it is difficult for them to establish a stable and advanced system in a year or two.
After having Durant and Irving, in terms of star style, they are still far from forming a system. Durant and Irving are both the best system makers, not players with their own systems, and it is not advisable to form a system in their own style, so the Nets took Harden down again in the Harden trade.
Before Harden came to the Nets, he was recognized by the league as a self-contained system, with organizational talent and offensive level, and could string a flat team into a strong overall team. Harden, then, is the fastest way for the Nets to form a system.
In fact, after Harden's arrival, the Nets also played a good integrity for a while, but they were unlucky, and the time for the big three to run together was too little.
With various events and injuries outside of basketball, the Nets have not actually developed a good system, but this has also created a significant problem, that is, the team will form other ways or preferences when it does not form a good system to operate, mainly reflected in the special dependence on several stars on the team.
It's mainly about dependence on Durant and Mills.
We've seen the Nets have a lot of rounds that force Durant to save the game and Mills to save the game, rather than a natural tactic to play here. Many times, Mills and Durant can exceed the task, resulting in many people completely ignoring the low level of the Nets' tactical links and the inefficiency of other links. In other words, it's Durant and Mills covering up.
Harden, who has had a small number of good games this season, returned to Rocket mode, which was in the period after quarantine and before Durant returned. However, after Durant's comeback, Harden sometimes despite the good data, can not bring victory, indicating that his organizational style and Durant have not really been linked, the cooperation between the two is still very mechanical.
When the two are more mechanical, Durant's offense is out of the system hardened, which seems to be like a curse on the strong, which is a very difficult thing to avoid.
Once a strong singles player and the person who created the system are combined, over time, there will be a kind of fragmentation, and this fragmentation can only be repaired when the output capabilities of other structures of the system can cover the cracks caused by the independent output of the singles to the team as a whole.
The Warriors system is considered to be the best system for rotating balls in history, but Curry and Durant still have a lot of similar questions in the late stages of their union — they are no longer integrated enough.
Durant's singles are too strong, omitting too many tactical links, resulting in many discomforts in Curry, which forms a separation between the two. Fortunately, the Warriors system, with the exception of Durant, has been at an output high that can cover the rift between Durant and Curry, so overall, Durant's strong singles have not torn apart the team.
The current Nets, with the exception of Durant, are not at a high output level like the Warriors, and many people do not have a strong ability to only bear the ball and cannot produce a deeper impact. Therefore, once Durant opens a strong singles, then the Nets' output form is likely to become only Durant's singles, which is generally believed to be "not moving teammates".
The essence here is that Durant's singles are too strong, objectively omitting too many opportunities for other people to exercise. The above meaning is that this is an inevitable event formed by the mismatch between the capabilities of the two sides.
If the super singles player does not pay attention to the above problems, then he is likely to become a star with good statistics and a bad record, and once he pays attention to similar problems, the integrity of the team is essentially improved. The difference here is the size of the teammate's offensive space.
Jordan and Kobe Bryant have encountered similar problems, and they have realized this problem in a certain period of time, thus driving teammates to become better teammates. They can enjoy the help of a humble teammate at a critical moment, and at the end of this help, we will find that this stems from jordan and Kobe Bryant's perception of a system player at some point in their careers from a purely advanced singles player to actively fusing the cracks between singles and the team system.
So now that Durant will have a similar situation, what should the Nets do?
Unfortunately, Durant did not encounter a triangle offense, but the Nets can still solve or avoid similar problems in the current situation.
How to solve it?
Mainly in the way Durant is used. Nash needs to turn him into an organizer outside of Harden, creating a state of service to other teammates.
That's the same thing Durant did with the Thunder in 2014. At that time, Durant led the Thunder team, and the effect was very harmonious and smooth. Now in the Nets, Durant can still be used in this way, but in terms of tactics, Nash must be flexible to change, rather than obsessing with Durant playing a tactical terminator.
Second, increase the use of Irving.
When Irving returns, the Nets can maintain that rhythm without worrying about the issues described above. Because one top singles player is not enough to win a series, two top singles players are enough. At that time, Harden coordinates people outside Du and Ou, while Du and Ou focus on scoring goals, and the opponent will be difficult to deal with.
So Irving is the fastest way to solve the Nets' problem, and judging by Nash's level of regulation, Irving is also Nash's most powerful supplementary weapon. With Irving, many problems are still problematic, and the Nets' system is still not a top-level system, but their offense is enough to cover up the details described above.
The "two-man turn" between Irving and the Nets is finally over, and then the league's best ball handlers will return, and if they stay healthy, the Nets should cash in on the championship this season.