NEW YORK – According to James Harden, it’s all a stream. Some evenings he said at his introductory press conference on Friday, “I can be a facilitator.” Other nights he can score on a high cut. Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant “can score ten possessions in a row,” he said, “and I’m fine with that, because we’re going to win and it’s going to be good.”
Harden will make his Brooklyn Nets debut on Saturday, provided all of the players physically succeed in Wednesday’s trade. Irving will be out of the series, according to ESPN’s Malika Andrews, but may be back from his absence as soon as Monday. When the three stars come together on the orbit, the world will see what it looks like. Harden said ‘it’s going to be fun’, accidentally channeling a notorious Sports Illustrated deck line, and that he can not predict how it will go from game to game.
“It’s the beauty of being versatile and being able to do more than one thing,” he said.
The counterpoint is that he has been doing the same since 2012. For every moment of his tenure at the Houston Rockets, Harden was unequivocally the center of offense and organization. The teammates changed, the coaching team changed and the style of play developed, but he had the ball in his hands, in total control. Nets coach Steve Nash admitted on Friday that it was going to be an adjustment for him, but said Harden is enthusiastic about the novelty of this situation. Harden said it was exciting to hear Nash, “one of the best at doing it ever,” explain his place in the offense when they spoke earlier in the day.
“As long as I make my teammates better, it doesn’t matter about the points,” Harden said. “I think everyone knows I can score on a high cut, and that’s where the sacrifice comes in.”
Harden repeatedly stressed that he wanted it, and so did his new co-stars. Nash and general manager Sean Marks, who spoke Thursday, said the same. It sounded a lot like everyone said about Durant and Irving co-existing with playmakers Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert, an experiment that barely started before Dinwiddie partially tore his ACL and traded the Nets LeVert in the Harden deal . However, this partnership is different. Brooklyn has three players of the entire NBA caliber, all between 28 and 32 years old, and Harden is not about to return to the sixth man of the year role he played in his early 20s.
Neither Harden nor his new coach offered a quote on the pass that matches the line Klay Thompson delivered after Durant joined the Golden State Warriors’ 73rd victory: “There is one ball. Guess what we will do – we put the hoop. ‘Nash did his best to reformulate the’ one ball ‘discussion, but called it the cliché’ big problem ‘for the coaching staff to, and more compellingly, a’ good opportunity ‘for the trio (Thompson also recalled ‘not sacrificing shit’.)
“Look, these guys, they want to win,” Nash said. “If they really want to win, they will find a way to play together. I think my role, our role as coaches, is to create an environment that is really enjoyable, challenging and competitive, but fun.”
It is difficult to suggest a more interesting coach for this particular challenge. Nash is one of the best leaders in NBA history, a Hall of Fame point guard who embodies selflessness. He is also in his first year at work, and he was notorious for it SI cover, posing next to Dwight Howard. Help the man that he is, when the foolish Howard ‘I Love LA’ belted during the photo shoot, Nash joined in. In the story, Grant Hill describes Nash as a ‘conductor’, but that superteam was never in tune, doomed by personality conflicts and injuries.
“After playing with other talented players in teams, you can see the pitfalls, the problems, and you can rely on those experiences,” Nash said. “And I think part of it just starts with denying what our motives are here together. Like what are we here for? What do we want to achieve?”
In that respect, Nash believes they are on the same page. Harden, Durant and Irving all know they need to “approach a little less volume to play now,” he said. “There are still a lot of shots to go around, there are still a lot of opportunities to make plays to go around, but it’s not going to be the same format as before, when it was largely the number 1 focal point. It’s going to be a lot more spread between the three of them. ‘Nash said the offense does not have to look perfect next week, but they will find out how to make each other – and their team members who do not have stars – better.
Harden described himself as an ‘elite player, an elite teammate and just a man willing to do whatever it takes to achieve as many victories as possible. He did not talk to Irving about how they would share the responsibility for the ball division, but he did not sound worried about it.
“Depending on what goes on throughout the course of the game, it’s going to determine who gets the ball and who makes the plays,” Harden said. “We’re all selfless, we’re all willing passers-by and we play basketball the right way. And that’s all that matters.”
Harden said the Nets were at the top of his list when he designed his Houston exit. “It was a decisive issue for me,” he said, because all he wants at this stage of his career is a chance to win a title.
However, it is always easier for a star player to talk about sacrifice than to actually do it. Durant certainly adapted to the Warriors, but even dominance on the field could not keep the arrangement going for more than three seasons. Irving said all the right things when he joined the Boston Celtics, but the situation became unbearable in year 2. One can look at the recent history and usage figures of these stars and conclude that this whole thing is going to blow up Brooklyn’s joint face. One can also suspect that they understand exactly what lies ahead of them.
“We know what’s at stake,” Harden said.