Two squads with a lot to prove are hoping to kick the season off with a bang. The Brooklyn Nets, now led by Kyrie Irving, will be hosting the up-and-down Minnesota Timberwolves, along with the much-criticized duo of Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins.

KYRIE HAS TO MAKE THINGS WORK

Irving joined the Nets alongside another decorated superstar, Kevin Durant. For now, though, he’ll be alone in leading the charge as Durant is still rehabbing his achilles injury and will be out for the year. There’s plenty of pressure on the star point guard to prove his worth as a leader, which he ultimately fell short of doing while with the Boston Celtics for the past two seasons.

Like in his Celtic years, Irving and his scoring prowess (22.2 PPG in his career) will be working with a core of solid, up-and-coming players with the Nets. In the wing, he’ll be blessed with the likes of Caris LeVert, Joe Harris, and Taurean Prince, while in playmaking and defense, he’ll be joining Spencer Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen, respectively. Excluding Prince, who he himself is bringing a wide skillset, all were part of the Nets’ surprising surge into the playoffs this past year.

Considering all the pieces and how the group has proved to work well with each other, Irving is in a position to make the team big contenders in the East… and he has to make it work this time.

TOWNS AND WIGGINS AREN’T ALL HYPE… OR ARE THEY?

The Towns-Wiggins tandem have had an underwhelming tenure in Minnesota so far. The Timberwolves have only made the playoffs once since the two were put together in the 2015-16 season, and that was when they had Jimmy Butler as the official leader of the team.

Don’t get it wrong, though. Towns still has all the makings of a bonafide superstar. The big man is an automatic 20 and 10 guy on a typical night and he can do other things well too. He was smooth at the back half of the 2018-19 season, pouring in in 27.9 points, 12.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.5 blocks, and two three-pointers per game in his last 26 outings.

The concern is his true ability to take the reins of a team as its undisputed leader.

The partnership with Wiggins is also in question. The front office has been trying to build around the two and it’s not looking like they are a perfect fit, especially with Wiggins trending down in the last two seasons. After scoring 23.6 per game in the 2016-17 season, the next two had only saw him register 17.7 and 18.1 PPG – the latter can even be argued as inflated as he increased his production during the last couple of weeks of the season, when teams are laying low and mostly playing bench players. Additionally, he also shot a career-low 41.2% in the 2018-19 campaign (also shot below 36% in 24 of his 73 games).

PREDICTION:

The Nets collect a win and light up the scoreboard against the Timberwolves’ atrocious defense, which has been rated by Basketball-Reference.com one of the worst in recent years (finished 27^th or lower in three of the last four seasons).