But I want to know how the Nets are handling this situation with Kyrie and, of course, how it all came together with the Harden trade this week.

Maria Kyrie Irving, I was told, was eager to play, uh, tomorrow night debut, potentially with James Harden and, of course, Kevin Durant.

But ultimately it was decided.

Listen, because he's been away, hasn't played a practice since January 5th.

Uh, that just putting him back on the court in a game situation might not be the wisest thing to do.

He'll have an opportunity, Uh, Thio, rejoin the team, potentially practice on Sunday and then play Monday against Milwaukee.

And he comes back to a very different reality with these Nets, Uh, than than prior to his extended absence that James Harden deal had been discussed between Houston and Brooklyn.

Really?

For a couple months, on and off.

It did heat up this past week, while Kyrie Irving was away and and, you know, for Brooklyn, listen, it is insurance for Kevin Durant's future with the Nets and having James Harden on board.

Uh, they don't wanna lose K D in free agency, and it comes up quickly.

He could be a free agent.

All three of these players could by the end of next season.

But remember this, too.

The Nets plan was always to use the assets they had built up to go get a third star player, James Harden, happened to become available if a player, hypothetically like Bradley Beal, was available and he hasn't been, you know, that would have been a target for the Nets and any number of other you know, big market teams in the league.

But right now, you know, Kyrie Irving returns to a three man starry cast here.

Unlike we've really seen here in the modern era of the league in terms of trying to figure out how are they all going to fit together?

How is this gonna work?

Yeah, well, we're gonna find that all out on Monday.

Stick around.

Don't go anywhere.

Plenty more with Adrian Jordanovski.

Let's get into what this Big three is going to look like on the court.

We know so much about offense, but they say defense wins championships and every single MBA champion since 2003, the Spurs.

They ranked in the top 11 in defense of a defense of efficiency.

It's hard to see this group doing that.

The Nets currently ranked 13th, and that was before acquiring James Harden and sending out their best rim protector and Jared Allen.

But how does this offense work?

Let's not James Harden.

I can't predict how it's gonna go.

Um, Carrie might score, you know, 10 possessions in a row.

You know, Katie might score 10 possessions in a row like they're more than capable of that.

And I'm fine with that, you know, because we're gonna be winning, and it's gonna be good.

So tomorrow we'll see.

And it's gonna be fun, and I'm excited about it.

How would you describe your conditioning level now, at this point in the season, great conditioning Doesn't matter.

If you could score on the court, Jalen and Jay will are here with us now.

Jalen, I want to start with you, Katie Kyrie and James Harden.

How does this work on a court?

This is about to be a New era version of what we saw when LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami I'm not saying they're gonna win the championship this season because that Big Three didn't win it in its first season as well.

But I'm interested to see if they're gonna be able to win a couple.

And it's exactly what the East Coast needed.

Ah, villain, You got K D.

Who left the Splash Brothers.

After winning back to back final's MVPs and hurting his Achilles Kyrie, Irvin left the opportunity to play with LeBron James and the Boston Celtics.

James Harden basically told the Rockets, Trade me or else.

And so these three guys on the same team at the same time.

Elite Playmakers.

Terrific in isolation.

Awesome score.

James Harden will be the guy to make the sacrifice because he's a terrific playmaker and Jay will.

He's the one that hasn't won a ring just yet.

Well, you mentioned it.

Those Air three of the top five players to go ahead.

Dave doesn't say exactly.

J.

Rose after being down 3 to 1 to the Golden State Warriors.

He had it in his clinches, and I'll say this.

There's an element of them that remind me a little bit of your squad.

J.

Rose back in the day.

Not from a physicality perspective, but there's a little bit of that Detroit Piston swagger, right?

Like we are the new bad boys of the 21st century, and we're gonna do it our way, whether you like it are not.

And here's how they actually do it on the court.

Maria, you move Kyrie, Irving off the ball.

You give the ball to James Harden, you play fast.

Look if Katie get to rebound.

If Perry gets rebounder James, you push it up, you play really fast.

But if you do get into a half court scenario, I like the ball on James Hardest hands.

Considering the average 10 assists, especially this year with the Houston Rockets.

And think about this from a coaching perspective, you put a blend.

Steve Nash did some work with the Golden State Warriors.

He understands that continuity system in which they had with Steve Kerr.

Now you also have Mike D'Antoni on the same bench that understands James Harden and also understands floors facing all these guys are multidimensional threats.

It's going to work offensively, and if nothing else, they're gonna win games.

What, like 1 30 toe, 1 40 or something?

like that.

We know they're gonna be able to score the ball.

But the real question is, too.

It's not only on the court is how these guys function off the court.

Jalen, if you had to suggest to the leader of this Big Three would be, who would you go with?

OK, d the leader, no doubt about it.

When he went to Golden State, he didn't want to embrace those responsibilities.

He's the leader because you know what, Maria?

The last couple of weeks with Sean Marks, Steve Nash Mike D'Antoni was trying to call Kyrie, and he was sitting in the voicemail he was answering when he talked to Katie.

They was like, Where's your man?

And when it was time to bring in James Harden, they was like Katie would do you think because he's a guy along with the others that has a chance to leave after this season or so?

So k D.

Now I think it's gonna be comfortable being there.

He's gonna be comfortable being the leader now on the East Coast man, anchoring what we've seen on the West with LeBron being the king and we know about Hawaiian PG.

But How about the Splash Brothers with Clay Thompson comes back.

This is gonna be great theater for the next couple of seasons.

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