While the Brooklyn Nets fans have very little to smile about this season reminiscing about their super team of yesteryear might draw a smile.
The Nets haven’t made it beyond the Eastern Conference semi-finals since the 2020-21 season, and there is very little sign of that changing this year.
They have just lost one of their star players Denis Schroder to the Warriors, the German was averaging 18.4 points, three rebounds and six assists, and further burden will now fall onto Cam Thomas.
The quality of Schroder and Thomas cannot be questioned but it struggles to compete with the names on the Nets roster of the 2020-21 season.
One of the stars from the side Spencer Dinwiddie, who is now with the Dallas Mavericks, explained how successful the team could have been if it wasn’t for one thing.
The Nets super team was full of the biggest names in the NBA as Dinwiddie was joined by the likes of De’Andre Jordan, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to name just a few. The team would also eventually acquire James Harden in a January trade, thus creating the super team.
The side finished 48-24 in the Eastern Conference and set a franchise record for three-point field goals against the Sacramento Kings on February 15, 2021, with 27 three-point field goals.
They went on to defeat the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, beating them in five games. They then faced the eventual champions in the Bucks during the conference semifinals and lost the series in seven games despite taking a 2–0 and later a 3–2 lead.
Sadly the side was plagued with injuries and the power trio of Harden, Irving and Durant managed just eight games together. The injury issues continued in the playoffs with Harden limping out of Game 1 of the semi-finals and Irving would then sustain an injury in Game 4.
Dinwiddie spoke on the Run Your Race Podcast to give his true thoughts on how detrimental injuries were to the Nets team, he suffered an ACL injury in that season which would see him play just three games.
Asked if the team could have won a ring without the injuries he said: “Bro easily. You got to remember, and I say this because it’s not even about me, this is real. If any one of us don’t get hurt because of the level that KD was playing at at that time he needed like a half step of a boost. He don’t even need a full Kyrie or a full James. He could of probably took half a Spence and won with how he was playing.
“Then you talk about James Harden, he’s the greatest offensive hub, Kyrie is the most skilled of all time, we’re talking about all-time greats.”
While the season ended without anything physical to show for it the super team will long go down as one of the most talented sides in NBA history.
The team were averaging 118.6 points per game, the second-best in the league. However, defense seemed to be a major issue as they were conceding 114.1 at the wrong end. It certainly made for entertaining matches.
Their field goal percentage sat at 49.4% while three-point shooting sat at 39.2%, pretty impressive numbers which explains the high-scoring nature of the side.
Here’s a look at individual stats from some of the stars.
| James Harden* | Kevin Durant | Kyrie Irving | |
| Points | 24.6 | 26.9 | 26.9 |
| Rebounds | 7.9 | 7.1 | 4.8 |
| Assists | 10.8 | 5.6 | 6.0 |
Usually, you see these types of stats from one player on a roster but for three guys to be dropping those numbers you can see why Dinwiddie was so certain of a potential championship.
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