I think the Nets have a chance to be better than at least six teams: the Bulls, the Hawks, the Mavs, the Magic, the Suns, and the Lakers. Sure, Crabbe is a disaster defensively, but Carroll is Crowder-lite, and if he has a good shooting season, an extremely useful player. Hollis-Jefferson is going to give people fits, too, and if Lin stays on the court, and Russel continues to improve, they've got enough shooters that they'll score no problem. I have no idea what will happen at center, admittedly. If Mozgov is terrible and Allen shows nothing, they could be in real trouble.
The Lakers, meanwhile, lost one of their better perimeter defenders in Nick fucking Young. Magic Johnson wants KCP to set the tone on defense. Think about that for a second. Now, if Lin, Rondae, and Carroll all miss significant time, things will be a little more up in the air. I think the Lakers could see real strides on the offensive end from guys like Ingram and Randle -- but one of these teams is primed to compete on the defensive end every night, and the other is going to get buried on that end, night in, night out.
I'll admit I didn't like this deal when I saw it had happened, but I've thought about it now: Crowder and Irving are the only sure things in this deal. Crowder, much as I may like him, is one of the more redundant pieces on the team (and I've had to have that point made to me in the past). With his hip, and his age, as someone who relies on getting to the line so much, Thomas may never score 20 ppg again. And the Nets pick may be #8. It's a real upgrade at a position of need (given Isaiah's uncertainty), and the place where it reduces depth is at SF, where we're deeper than anywhere else, and at C, where Zizic may never be anything more than a better rebounding Tyler Zeller.
The points that HRB and others have made repeatedly about Irving's skillset translating on the biggest stage are well-taken. Having a player who can shoot and handle the ball like Irving, when it comes to crunch time, is invaluable. He can be a ballhog, but we had many of the same complaints about Isaiah.
I thought Isaiah's performance in the playoffs last year -- on a bad fucking hip -- was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. He'll be missed.