Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving played merely nine regular season games and five playoff games as a healthy trio. The results in those contests were undeniable as the three superstars seemed to mesh effortlessly and largely blow away the competition with overwhelming talent and offensive prowess.
Getting Durant, Irving and Harden on-court reps in the regular season is important to continue to build a rapport with one another but also for the development of young rotation players: Nicolas Claxton, Bruce Brown along with free agent additions Patti Mills, Jevon Carter (via trade) and DeAndre' Bembry.
At what cost are Steve Nash and Sean Marks willing to incur to ensure the Nets are a well-oiled machine come playoff time?
Brooklyn finished 48-24, second in the conference behind Philadelphia and despite Game 7 on its home floor against Milwaukee, fell inches short of advancing to the conference finals.
Home court advantage is certainly a factor in the playoffs, but conserving minutes and keeping the team's most dynamic players fresh for a title run has to be a top priority. Irving is coming off a severely sprained ankle, Harden a moderate hamstring strain, and while Durant was healthy for last year's stretch run, he helped carry Team USA to Gold in the Tokyo Olympics after shortened offseason, playoff push and prior to that 18-months without playing in a regular season game.
Treating Brooklyn's three-headed monster with kid gloves is not the recipe for success either. Irving has battled his share of foot and leg injuries throughout his career, while the normally iron-man Harden was never able to fully recover from a hamstring strain after showing up late to Rockets training camp out of shape.
So the question remains, what is the perfect amount of games for the Nets' Big Three to play together? 40? 50? 60 or more?
Marks' and Nash's philosophy likely won't be so straightforward as they have the luxury of all players being able to orchestrate the offense so they can staggered load management games play two stars together, one on his own or in back-to-backs and long road trips let the rest of the club's roster handle the heavy lifting.
It's clear that the requisite talent is in Brooklyn to deliver on championship hopes, but managing minutes and the job the team's training staff can do to keep its stars healthy will go a long way in determining the Nets' fate during the 2021-2022.
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