Kevin Durant looks back on the 2021 Nets team that he felt was the best team on paper

Kevin Durant looks back on the 2021 Nets team that he felt was the best team on paper originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Having Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden on the same team would have been a cheat code for any team. The Brooklyn Nets thought they had finally unlocked the puzzle, as they had a big three ready to win a championship.

Unfortunately, it all fizzled out without a title. It was a big blow to the Nets and the trio because they could not meet their goal. To this day, Durant is hurt by what happened because he thought it was the best team he had ever played on.

It is a bold statement to make because Durant was part of the Golden State Warriors team that won the 2017 and 2018 championships. In fact, to this day, people think that Warriors squad was one of the best in NBA history, especially the 2017 team that only lost one game in the Playoffs.

The 2021/22 Nets team was loaded with talent, especially on the top level with the trio of Durant, Irving, and Harden. Unfortunately, they could not beat the injury bug. They only played 16 games together, and during that stretch, they went 13-3, which was split into 8-2 in the regular season and 5-1 in the Playoffs.

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If they were all healthy, they could have easily won the championship. Unfortunately, that was not the case due to the injuries and Harden getting traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in February 2022. It was a messy situation for all parties involved, which made Durant always wonder what could have been.

"That's the biggest one for me; it would've been so dope to see that in Brooklyn. Just looking at the straight roster, and nothing else, I would say Brooklyn. Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap, Patty Mills. We had the names on that team when you're looking at straight paper," Durant said on Boardroom about the best team on paper during his playing career.

It is a fair assessment because they did have a lot of talented players. Of course, there was context behind all of them, but when looking at the names, it is fair to call them the best. A lot of people will deem the Warriors teams as the best on paper, but Durant feels like the Nets had the better group based on name recognition alone.

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