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As the NBA 2020 Playoffs move forward on Saturday with multiple first-round series nearing their end, Brooklyn Nets fans are finally allowed to put the strange 2019-20 season behind them.
Which means, Nets fans can now look forward to Kevin Durant’s Nets debut in 2020-21, along with his partnership with Kyrie Irving.
In anticipation of the Durant-Irving pairing on the floor, quite a few former NBA players have been asked if there will be an adjustment period for the two, most recently Jay Williams during his conversation with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson of Heavy.com.
While the ESPN analyst thinks there will be some level of adjusting on the part of both Durant and Irving — which, he says, will be impacted by whoever becomes the team’s next head coach — Williams told Robinson there’s an important intangible at play when it comes to Brooklyn’s pair:
They are thick. They are tight. Like, they are really tight. If you were to ask me as a guessing man, it’s going to be Kyrie and KD against the world. I think Kevin’s gonna have his back. I think Kyrie’s gonna have Kevin back. It’s going to be like the bad boys in Brooklyn.
Robinson then asked Williams if he thinks the Durant-Irving Nets will compare to the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons in any way:
I do because I think this team, in the market that they’re going to be in, in the back yard of Brooklyn, the press is going to try their damndest to break that team apart. Every little thing. Every little thing. If it was Kyrie having a smirk. If it was Kevin waiving the coach off. If it’s Spencer Dinwiddie being mad about playing time. How does that affect Caris LeVert, who — his stock has skyrocketed when he was in the bubble. Skyrocketed.
So, now, you have four guys on the verge of being All-Stars. … And the Knicks aren’t good. you don’t think people are going to try to rip the Nets apart? So I really do believe that regardless of whatever happens, they’re going to be as thick as blood. They’re going to stay together. And if the ship goes down, they’re all going to go down together.