Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving made an appearance on Twitch streamer KaiCenat's channel on Sunday and spoke candidly about the team getting swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last season. 

Irving's full comments: 

"We got 4-0'd my G, we got 4-0'd. It was meant to happen like that. Motivation bro. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built to be that matchup. We're gonna see them again, we're gonna have to. They're gonna be where they're gonna be. But those youngins over there in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them do what they did last year on the Finals stage, making it that far, I'm glad they had to go through us."

Simply put, this is cope. The Nets getting swept in the first round after forming a superteam is the complete opposite of how things were meant to happen. Using such a failure as motivation would be ideal, though it's not clear if the Nets will be able to do so given all of their offseason drama. 

Both Irving and Kevin Durant were hoping to force their way out via trade, but neither were able to do so -- the former because few teams were actually interested in his services and the latter because no one was willing to pay the (understandably) exorbitant price the Nets set. 

So both are back, at least to start the season, along with head coach Steve Nash and Ben Simmons, who has not played in an NBA game in 15 months. If all parties are able to stay healthy and move past the events of the past year, the Nets have the talent to be one of the best teams in the East, and possibly the league. There are a whole lot of ifs involved in that scenario, though, and it's hard to have much faith in this group at the current moment.