The Opening Tip

• The Hornets have a team worth watching
• The best NBA account on Twitter is a Japanese Raptors fan page
• An Allen Iverson anniversary

Tonight's best games

1. Expensive, bearded, and overly philosophical: Now the Nets are truly Brooklyn

• Without Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving (who, after receiving a heavy fine, is expected to play on Saturday) involved in a potential trade, it would take nothing short of nearly a decade’s worth of picks to even get the conversation going. 

Well … here’s the haul Houston got from Brooklyn in Wednesday’s trade, which indeed sent Harden to Atlantic Avenue. 

• Brooklyn’s unprotected first-round pick in 2022, 2024 and 2026, plus Milwaukee’s 2022 first-rounder.
• The right to pick swap* with Brooklyn in 2021, 2023, 2025 and 2027.

The knee-jerk reaction was to compare this trade to the 2013 one that sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn. That one reeked of desperation, a win-now-or-else trade in the wake of the Nets’ move from New Jersey. This one yields an MVP candidate still in his prime, who joins a foundation of an all-time great and a (mercurial) third All-Star. 

• The 2013 trade got snagged on the dozens of what ifs required to make it go right. This one has much more room for error. 

The question now: Can the Nets, long pitched as the hip alternative to the establishment Knicks, finally make hay in a Knicks town? It would probably take winning an NBA title to do so, and Brooklyn, combustible as its personalities are, finally finds itself in that position.

*The pick swap is the NBA’s way around the Ted Stepian rule, which outlaws a team from trading consecutive first-rounders. For every rule, there’s a story.

[READ: James Harden heads to Brooklyn with a spark -- but he could also burn it all down]

2. Daily GIF: The pass, the dunk

The Hornets are full of young players, mostly without their NBA sea legs, who can all do one or two things exceptionally. LaMelo Ball can make flip passes look like a day in the park. Miles Bridges can scratch his back with the ball in mid-air and dunk on a guy with a 7-foot-4 wingspan.

So far, it’s added up to a respectable 6-7 record, though Charlotte lost last night to the Raptors, 111-108.

3. Behold the Google translations of this Japanese Raptors fan page

4. Trivia time

Ben Simmons had his 30th career triple-double last night in a 125-108 win over the Heat, becoming the fourth player to reach that mark before the age of 25.

Who are the other three?

(Via @EliasSports)

Hint: Not Russell Westbrook.

5. 01/15/2002: AI plays 49 minutes … shoots 42 times … drops 58 points

On this day 19 years ago, Allen Iverson had perhaps the most Allen Iverson game of his career, playing 49 minutes of a possible 53 in a 112-106 overtime win over Houston.

His final line:

• 21-of-42 (!) from the field, 14-of-14 from the line, 58 points, 6 turnovers, 6 assists, 2 rebounds. 

That was during the 2001-02 season, when Iverson played 43.7 minutes per game over 60 games and averaged 31.4 points.

His usage rate that year (37.78) is the sixth highest single-season usage rate in NBA history. It all added up to a 43-39 regular season record and a first round loss.

6.  Quick hits

• The number of game postponements has reached nine heading into the weekend, though the Celtics are set to play tonight for the first time since Jan. 8. 
• Shaq went in on James Harden last night. 
• Chuck on Kevin Durant: “He went from the Splash Brothers to the Dribble Brothers.”
• Bol Bol, meet James Wiseman.
• Vernon Maxwell: “If I’m the beard I’m taking a page out in the Houston Observer thanking all the dancers in town for the past 8 years.” (It’s the Chronicle but close enough.)

7.  Off the press

• What Is Kyrie Irving doing? [Slate]
• Kevin Durant keeps reinventing himself and ending up in the same place [The Ringer]
• Introducing Willie Cauley-Stein, Mavericks center and painter extraordinaire [ESPN]