Can the New Look Nets Win it All?

"Today, the basketball gods smiled on the Nets," team owner Mikhail Prokhorov said in a statement.

It's official. The Brooklyn Nets have finally made the jump from Eastern Conference stragglers to Eastern Conference contenders. With the blockbuster trade that would send Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry to the Nets in exchange for Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, and a bunch of future first and second round picks going to the Celtics being approved and finalized, the 2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets roster looks like it could contend for a championship next spring.

A starting line-up of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Brook Lopez would give the other elite teams around the league a force to reckon with. With Jason Terry coming off the bench, along with Shaun Livingston, Andrei Kirilenko, Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche, the Nets will have considerable depth at almost every position, an advantage they could use against teams like the NY Knicks, the Bulls and the Clippers out West. The increase of veteran talent on this roster will also help Jason Kidd, who will start his first season as the head coach of the Nets, after retiring earlier this year. 

But, these new high profile additions will send the Brooklyn Nets approximately $29,519,400 above the luxury tax threshold, which will result in roughly $82,957,437.25 in estimated luxury taxes for billionaire owner, Mikhail Prohkorov (not that he seems to care).

 As to whether the Nets will be able win it all next season, they would have to go through the Miami Heat in order to get to the Finals, a daunting task that would result in a playoff series that hypothetically, could go either way. And let's say the Nets do somehow make it to the Finals. A match-up against either the Spurs or the Thunder (the two teams mostly likely to make it to the Finals in the West), would provide yet another daunting challenge. As I've said before in other articles, it's very hard to predict what'll happen in the NBA, there's just too much uncertainty. For all we know, the team could start off on the wrong foot, and not make the playoffs altogether. And we've seen with the last year's Lakers that what looks great on paper doesn't necessarily transfer into playoff success.