A trade in 2013 with the Celtics for the veterans Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce eventually cost the Nets the No. 3 overall pick in 2016, the No. 1 overall pick in 2017, and their top pick in the coming draft, very possibly another top 5.

So why aren’t the Nets worse? Start with the shots they are choosing. Brooklyn is taking 41 percent of its shots from 3-point range, second only to the mad-bombing Rockets. They are not shooting the 3s all that well, but they are hitting enough, 796 so far, that the extra points are adding up. Along the same lines, they are avoiding that most dreaded of shots, the long 2, taking only 7 percent of their shots from that inefficient range, second again to the Rockets.

As you might expect, they top the league in few categories, but are eminently respectable in a few key ones that are often overlooked: The team ranks 12th in getting to the free-throw line and defensively is 12th in opponent’s effective field-goal percentage.

Crabbe can really shoot from 3, and Dinwiddie can really pass (fifth in the league in assists). And Russell, when healthy, has the potential to be a franchise player, and at age 22 he has time to grow into that role.

“I really enjoyed playing against those guys,” Kevin Durant of the Warriors said on the YES network after Tuesday’s game. “They’ve got a bright future.”

It adds up to overachievement, any way you look at it. The Nets have won 59 percent of their games against the point spread, second only to the Celtics. Yes, if you had bet blindly on the Nets, of all teams, this season, you would be making a profit. (It probably comes as no surprise that the Cavaliers have been the league’s worst bet.)