Did the Brooklyn Nets already miss their championship window?

After losing to the Milwaukee Bucks in an epic Game 7 Saturday night, is the Brooklyn Nets’ championship window already closed? 

Game 7. There’s not a better, more concise phrase in sports to convey urgency and “win or go home”. And Saturday night’s Game 7 between the Milwaukee Bucks and Brooklyn Nets, won in overtime by the Bucks, lived up to the billing.

Everywhere you looked, there was a record being set. A 40-10 game in a Game 7? Check (Giannis Antetokounmpo). The highest point total put up in a Game 7 in NBA history? Check (Kevin Durant). Clutch shots? Check.

But with the season-ending loss comes talk about the future for the Nets. Their “Big 3” of Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden were rarely healthy together after Harden was acquired in January, right through the series against Milwaukee. Harden didn’t play from early in Game 1 until Game 5 due to a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and Irving didn’t play after Game 4 due to an ankle injury.

Is the Nets’ championship window already closed?

Durant and Irving signed with the Nets in the summer of 2019. Durant missed the entire 2019-20 season as he recovered from a torn Achilles, and Irving played just 20 games in the pandemic-shortened and interrupted season.

Harden’s hamstring issue dates back to late in the regular season, and in line with the nature of soft tissue injuries it re-occurred quickly. Rest should be helpful, after he played the end of the series against the Bucks on one leg.

Harden will turn 32 in August, Durant will turn 33 in September and Irving will turn 30 next March. The Nets put themselves in a championship window by pairing Durant and Irving, with a quick coaching change from Kenny Atkinson to Steve Nash before the two played a game together. Then they sacrificed the future and pushed all their chips into that window by trading for Harden.

Durant, Irving and Harden are all under contract for next season, and all three have player options for 2022-23. All three are also eligible to sign contract extensions of up to four years this offseason. The Nets will have to consider the length and money of those deals to keep the three together, while their three stars consider security (and staying together in Brooklyn) or being able to opt out next summer.

Injuries have left the Nets to wonder what might have been this year, and falling short in any year of a win-now window you’ve put yourself in is not ideal. But the Nets’ championship window absolutely remains open, at least for next year and probably for a couple years beyond that as long as their star trio stays together.