NEW YORK — When James Harden came, the mission stayed the same. And now that he’s gone, the show must go on.
The answer to Steve Nash’s season-long roster experiment has been before his eyes this entire time, and it’s why the Nets are confident their Barclays Center-shaped ship is still sturdy.
The dark clouds have parted in the aftermath of Hurricane Harden, and Nets GM Sean Marks has plugged the holes in this vessel’s deck.
His team might be riding a league-worst 10-game losing streak, and it certainly just traded its best available player for three complementary puzzle pieces.
In dealing Harden and veteran Paul Millsap to the 76ers at the NBA’s trade deadline Thursday, the Nets got back Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and two future first-round picks.
“These are not easy decisions, but we’re very grateful for what James has done over his short time here,” Marks said in a press conference on Friday. “But at the same time, adding these three players — Seth, Andre and Ben — help us in needs James doesn’t fulfill.”
Yet Marks’ ship continues to sail straight, and despite roster turbulence that will continue through the Feb. 20 All-Star Weekend, the Nets have not lost sight of the destination.
In the aftermath of the biggest midseason trade in franchise history, Brooklyn has had its moment of clarity.
“I think we got better,” said veteran forward Blake Griffin. He later added: “I think we definitely got what we wanted: Guys that want to be here and guys who want to come on and play. I think we’re excited about that.”
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Minus one, plus three — the Nets are all too familiar with this equation.
When then-Mayor Bill de Blasio enacted the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for indoor professional sports athletes in the Big Apple, the Nets lost Kyrie Irving as he refused to get the jab.
Then they leaned on Joe Harris, Patty Mills and rookie Cam Thomas.
And when Harris went down in mid-November with an ankle injury he’s still battling, the Nets turned to their other wings on the roster: DeAndre’ Bembry and a pair of rookies, David Duke Jr. and Kessler Edwards.
The trend is a throughline in an injury-plagued Nets season widely characterized as a war of attrition: Brooklyn concurrently lost 13 players to the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, has had 11 players miss at least one game due to injury, and trotted out its 30th different starting lineup in Game 55 against the Washington Wizards on Thursday.
Nash won’t be halting his rotation experiment any time soon, either: He’s about to incorporate Simmons, Curry and Drummond into the rotation while also reintegrating Durant, Aldridge, Claxton and, at some point, Harris.
“We’ll have ideas, but ... (we’ll) have to see it to really inform ourselves on where we want to take this group,” Nash said. “Obviously, there’s ideas that we can start with, but there’s always that analysis of how the pieces actually fit and feel.”
The Nets, however, are well-equipped for their next chapter — and to be clear, Harden is already a distant memory. He is but a blip on the radar tracking the Nets’ championship journey, a package that landed in Brooklyn that perhaps the Nets knew belonged elsewhere.
“There’s a mutual respect,” Irving said of his former teammate. “So, I can’t really say that you felt (Harden being unhappy) in the locker room — but we get hints. So, we just wish him well. We want him to be ultimately successful. Now, we move forward with the guys that are coming in. We’re excited.”
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Brooklyn’s championship equation is imperfect: The Nets have subtracted one and added three, and Nash must now whittle 17 legitimate rotation players down to just a 10-man rotation.
Marks isn’t finished making moves, either: The Nets will be aggressive in using their $11.6 million trade exception from the Spencer Dinwiddie deal to pursue free agents on the buyout market, a source familiar with the front office’s thinking told the New York Daily News.
Brooklyn’s roster is full, which means to add new players, Marks must waive someone. More additions via subtractions. Minus one, plus three.
Time is of the essence: March 1 is the deadline for NBA teams to sign playoff-eligible free agents.
The problem is that the Nets have no clue what they need just yet.
Durant isn’t expected to return until Feb. 24 at the earliest, Harris may need a second surgery on his left ankle, Aldridge, too, is nursing a left ankle sprain and Irving can only play in nine of the team’s remaining 27 games — unless Mayor Adams repeals the Key to NYC vaccine mandate.
Not to mention Simmons has cited mental health issues for not playing the entire first half of the season, issues he’s continuing to sort through with a therapist as he makes his return to the basketball floor.
Yet in one fell swoop — and a year and change to the date — the Nets have undone the deal that nearly altered the course of franchise history.
Marks has effectively turned Caris LeVert, Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen into Simmons, Drummond and Curry.
“It’s very encouraging,” said Mills, the veteran sixth man. “I think the pieces to the puzzle that we’ve tried to figure out from the beginning of the season — and still now — are very complementary to the parts that we already have.”
That’s what happens when you remove one and add three: The Nets have moved on from No. 13 and are now focused on 15.
Harden’s is now Philadelphia’s burden — or blessing; the designation is in the eye of the beholder.
“I’m looking at this trade,” said former 76ers legend and current NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley. “I’m concerned for my Sixers.”
And as Durant, the East’s All-Star captain, said before drafting seven other All-Star reserves instead of his former teammate — including his team’s third center, Rudy Gobert; Dejounte Murray, and LaMelo Ball — “Everyone got what they wanted” in the deal that moved Harden to Philly.
The Sixers get an All-World playmaker to support Joel Embiid in his prime years, and the Nets get the roster balance they have lacked since they blew the team up to bring Harden to Brooklyn.
That era is over, and after six DNPs in his last eight games, it couldn’t have come to an end quick enough.
That’s a sentiment the Nets seem to share from the top down. They are an organization perpetually fixated on winning a championship, a team that believes subtracting one and adding three moves them closer to their ultimate goal.
“I think we always set our sights (on winning a championship),” Nash said on Thursday. “Obviously we’re on a time crunch a little bit and (need to be) getting everyone healthy, gaining some cohesion and building a team that can flow and play at both ends of the floor.
“But we’re not taking our foot off the gas. We want to try to build and reach for the stars and try to have a sense of urgency with this new addition.”
Does the math add up? Time will tell.
