Like, people forget that those Harden Rockets teams rarely had real chemistry... and yet he took them to, minimum, the semis in the West annually. He woulda made (and probably won) the Finals had he not... run into Durant. Who is now on the same team as him. In the East. With Kyrie. (Theoretically.)

Most Big 3s historically have *one* non-shooter. Like, KD, Kyrie, and Harden are three of the best perimeter shooters in the NBA. Harden's numbers are lower than the other two, but it's because of how often he pulls up-- if he has an open look, it's in.

So now you have your best defender on KD, your second best defender on Harden (who can beat most teams' first best defender), and your third best defender on Kyrie (who, again, can beat probably 90% of teams' first best perimeter defender). Meanwhile, you also have Joe Harris waiting with hands open to knock down stand still 3s-- and he's one of the best in the league at that.

Unless shit dramatically implodes... they don't need defense. Which sounds fucking dumb to say. Because yes, they will play close games, and yes, they'll need defense in those. But they have three guys who can out-ISO most defenders in the league, and defenders won't be able to double any of them at all. It'd take a team with elite options on both ends (the Lakers, for instance) to beat them. I'm not convinced a team in the East can beat them in a best of 7 series, outside of maybe Philly if everything is really humming there.

That said, even though chemistry is probably being overrated by the public, the jokes about the chemistry are pretty obvious and I don't begrudge anyone for making them, lol.