On your smart speaker just say play ESPN radio. I'm Aaron Goldhammer with Courtney Cronin and James Harden. First of all, Courtney, it looked like he'd lost about £20 since he played in Houston earlier this week. Yeah, I think those weird tie dye it looks like what I used to make it summer camp. Those tide I looking next jersey. They're like blue. And then there's like a splash of white here and there. It looks like how I would do when I was in fifth grade. Um, I think it's very slimming because that does not look like the James Harden that we saw back in December when the league was just getting underway and he was in a Houston rockets uniforms. Is it possible for these guys to like gain 10 Pet like today lose in gain 10 or £15, just because the amount they eat and the amount they work out when you're a professional athlete like I've heard LeBron say before, for example, that he's lost. 10 or £15 during a game of before for me to lose or gain. £10 is a phenomenal amount of weight, but I work out like four times a year. Um, so it's hard for me to really get a feel it looked there. The pregame pictures from the other night against the Lakers hardens last game with the Rockets. And the pregame pictures tonight It looked like a completely different person looked like he'd lost 15 or £20. So the Nets win 1 22 1 15. They got a big performance just to win by seven. Courtney. They got big performances from both Katie and from Harden. Durant also had 42 in this game. In addition to hardens 32, but it's almost like no one else. You know that They've got two guys now on this team. It's almost like they have no one else who can contribute. They need those big time performances from all of their stars. Other than that, they're margin for air. To win, I think is pretty small. Yeah. I mean, that's the hard part. When you take a look at like the 14 trade that sent out care, slivered in Jared Allen and you know all the boatload of picks that the Rockets are gonna have through What 2024 25 like the next half of this decade s o. That to me is when you lose key members make cares the vert somebody. It we're thinking is potentially a six man of the year candidate to start out the 2020. 2021 season s O I don't know. You don't want to get into a situation where it's like Oklahoma City a couple years ago where you had Russian, U N k D and then you had everybody else like you have volume scorers as we certainly saw today, and I know that Kyrie Irving still on his sabbatical or whatever s so I'll be curious to see when they get him back in the mix. You're gonna have a team that scoring it will every single night But how long is it going to take before we can Actually tangibly, see and feel the contributions from other guys in this bench because they you know, while they brought in a superstar player who, by the way, I think the most interesting thing if we're talking about the James Harden introductory press conference and all of that yesterday You know, most times, guys come to places and say I came here to win a championship. I came here to be a part of that core that can do that. His thing was he wasn't making any promises, he said. Quote. It's not a guarantee that me coming to Brooklyn is guaranteeing a title. He certainly talked about the chance to do so. It's important for him at this stage of his career. It's what he wants, but I don't know that one kind of like if I know that he essentially said the right thing, but just the tone of it in just the way that, he said. It made me think that it's like, OK, even here sees that this could be very difficult to do even though you have three great players. Three prolific scorers when you don't have and you don't have so much uncertainty about the rest of your bench. And all the contributions that you may have given up Essentially in this trade game night, ESPN radio ESPN APP. I'm Aaron Goldhammer. With Courtney Cronin right now ongoing in the NFL playoffs, Justin Tucker of the Ravens has missed two field goals both off the uprights. As the Bills lied. Baltimore three Nothing with 6 55 to go in the second quarter Packers win earlier today, but we're talking MBA is James Harden makes his debut tonight as the Nets beat the Magic 1 20 to 1 51 15 and Hardened had a triple double. In his debut with Brooklyn. I think this is a big three coordinates the new Big three on D usually big threes, make the finals or win the title. If you have a big four, you're like assured of that, right? But this big three has major questions in a variety of areas with Katie. It's his health. Other than that, I think I can count on Katie to be a superstar in the best player on this team. With Harden. It's just his playoff performances. You know, I know. James Harden could put up a game like this against the magic in the middle of January. He's January. James. That's this is what he's known for. He's proven he's in all MBA all World player this time of year. It's what happens in June and July this year That's going to dictate a season And then I think what? The nets right The biggest question of all is what if anything, are they going to get from Kyrie? Irving? Can they count on him? So while they have a big three, I'm not convinced at all. Courtney that this is the best team in the East at their best. I think they are, but because they have all of those questions hardened in the clutch and Durant stay healthy and Kyrie even being around and I just have Ah, lot of questions still about how this whole next thing is going to come together. I think you can say that high risk because of all those factors that she that you mentioned, high risk high reward mean Durant is playing at a level right now that I was shocked to see he didn't look like you missed a beat after 15 months. Between the last time he took the court Game five of the finals in 2019 to where he debuted this year this year with the Achilles that's impressive, impressive. He's averaging more in 29 points. Um, you know, the way that he played with the Warriors like that looks like the Durant that we're seeing now, but almost like on steroids, And I mean that like, not in that sense, but like a really heightened version of Kevin Durant to the point where it's like, Who is this guy? Did he reinvent himself in his time away from the court That's going to yield a different version. Of him when he's at this point of his career with the Nets, But I think all the ancillary stuff around this is what gives me a little bit of pause, because could this potentially be the next big super team? Yes, it's got a big three when Durant was with the apple with the Golden State Warriors. He was part of the Big Four. So he kind of left one situation where he was criticized for, you know, joining a super team to essentially join another. I mean, yes, it was him and Irving when they linked up initially, but I'm sure he had quite a say in bringing James hearted in considering how close they are, and they were Oklahoma City together all those years or early on, so it's kind of weird to me like it's like he left one to join another, and maybe it's because the people couldn't came to him. It wasn't him being the out liar, joining the already great team, I don't know, but sure there's so much uncertainty with that. That? Yes, This is a team that can score. It will, but they're not going to be is good on the defensive end. Let's say it's a team like Milwaukee. I don't know if they're gonna be able to stop teams that will like that. But they're going to be entertaining his heck to watch because they're gonna be scoring. Ah, lot of points every single night when all three of them Assuming urban comes back from his sabbatical. I don't know how long that's gonna last, but You know if it's effectively soon that could be a really hot team entering the month of February. Beyond that, Courtney and it's here in gold and with Courtney Cronin, ESPN radio ESPN APP with Game night. It's if they don't win the title based on all the pics that they gave up in this trade and the way they mortgaged their future if they don't win a championship with this core group I think it's a massive failure because they're going to move into the latter part of this decade and have no assets. What so ever in order to improve their team, they're gonna have no Bonified..