Kristian Winfield: The Nets don’t have time to fix all their problems, but they do have superstar power

This is why you cut the check.

It’s why you pay DeAndre Jordan to facilitate Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving coming to Brooklyn at a $300 million tag. It’s why you sacrifice draft capital and young, promising players to trade for James Harden, in the second year of his four-year, $171 million deal.

It’s why you saddle yourself in luxury tax, knowing every dollar spent is really almost three paid.

You do it all to give yourself the best chance to win big, and the Nets, who are getting healthy right before the playoffs begin, are beginning to have just that. As Durant and Irving get games under their belt with Harden’s return on the horizon, the separation in the amount of star power between the Nets and other teams begins to widen further.

“You’ve got three of the most elite basketball players in the game today and probably that’s ever played in the sense of skill wise,” Harden said. “That’s not the problem.”

Say what you want about this Nets team. They haven’t been healthy all year. They have a rookie head coach who didn’t win a championship as a Hall of Fame player. Their Big 3 has only played six-and-a-half games together. The team has been riddled with injuries that have prevented them from hitting their stride. They can’t stop other teams from pounding the paint or cleaning the glass.

All those things are, in fact, true, but are immediately undone by the following: No team in the league has three better players at their disposal than the Nets do. It’s a talent-driven league, and the Nets have a whole lot of it that they will be leaning on to compensate for other glaring shortcomings.

“That’s the reality, that hopefully the amount of time together isn’t as necessary in a traditional sense, because they are so gifted,” Steve Nash said.

Both Harden and Nash agree this team has a roster that, on paper, should be able to win it all. But it’s the little details that could undo the Nets on their road to a championship.

One of those details is the revolving door that has become Nash’s rotations. Yes, the Nets boast one of the deepest rosters in basketball, but which players best complement one another? How can a lineup with Harden at the one continue to generate offense when Irving is in his place? And how can a team that has struggled to string together stops finally learn to do so when they’re healthy, re-learning each other yet again when the games finally begin to matter, against teams that have scouted them for every identifiable weakness?

“James obviously makes us a lot better, but we also need time to find the chemistry and the continuity and the little things,” the Nets head coach said. “That stuff is a big part of that is chemistry, continuity and common history. So any chance for that to be furthered before the playoffs is really pivotal for us.”

The roles have already been identified. Harden is the maestro running the show. Irving is the artist, the scorer who makes getting buckets look simultaneously easy and difficult. Durant is the mastermind, a two-time Finals MVP who ostensibly plotted this championship run.

Everyone else on the team knows what they’re supposed to do. Shooters shoot and defend. Rebounders clean the glass and protect the paint. Play-makers make plays. Energy guys bring the energy.

And the stars just have to star, and show why they’ve been paid such exorbitant NBA contracts. There isn’t enough time left for the Nets to clean their mistakes, especially not the mistakes on display in Milwaukee

Who wasn’t on display in Milwaukee? Harden. Which is why a Nets team with three bona fide stars is still confident it can out-gun opposing playoff matchups who don’t have the same luxury.

“I know when I have Kevin and Kai and the rest of the guys on the floor that I don’t have to score 30 points to win games and we’ve seen that all year,” Harden said. “So it’s not about scoring the basketball, it’s about the other things that probably won’t show up on the stat sheet but will get us wins and once we get that, it’s gonna be tough for teams to beat us like I said. Scoring won’t be an issue for us at all.”