The foundation for the 2021 Brooklyn Nets was conceived four years ago and roughly 4,800 miles away from Brooklyn.
While playing together during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan starting discussing the idea of eventually joining the same NBA to chase a Larry O’Brien trophy. The trio, now the Nets’ backbone, is hoping that chase will begin in earnest next season.
New Nets coach Steve Nash has not yet indicated what type of system he will use to get the most out of a loaded roster. Searching for any kind of sample size of the three on the court together is hard, with All-Star games and exhibitions having smaller stakes from which to draw any reasonable conclusions.
That led The Athletic back to Rio. We watched the roughly 250 possessions that some combination of Durant, Irving and Jordan were on the court together during those Summer Games and found some takeaways about how the Nets…
