The Nets aren’t overreacting. They’re not urgent the large purple button.
It’s the simplest factor to do — or to recommend one ought to do — when the going will get robust early into an NBA season with championship aspirations: Blow it up and begin from scratch. And for the Nets, Kyrie Irving basically poured lighter fluid on an already flammable scenario following Kevin Durant’s offseason commerce request and ultimatum.
Ten days from the season opener feels extra like 10 years for a Nets workforce whose on-court struggles are solely overshadowed by its off-court drama.
They are a championship contender for the third season in a row, however solely have one win of their first six video games to indicate — and their newest loss got here towards an Indiana Pacers workforce they have been 11-point favorites towards.
“They’ve [the Pacers] got three guys hitting five-plus threes and they were hot: Buddy Hield, Tyrese [Haliburton], and Benedict [Mathurin],” Kevin Durant mentioned after the loss. “They’re good players though. All of them will get $100 million dollars so regardless of the expectation or what they look like on paper, they’re individually good players, then they got some more that were hurt tonight. There’s talent in this league. We can’t overlook everybody.”
That’s been the secret by the primary six video games — the primary 5 of which have been towards authentic NBA playoff competitors earlier than Nets followers all-but booed the workforce off the courtroom following a very embarrassing effort — or lack thereof — towards an Indiana workforce Las Vegas has successful fewer than 24 video games this season; and humorous sufficient, it’s why the Nets aren’t overreacting to their early season woes.
It’s one factor for the workforce to take care of issues can be ugly earlier than they get fairly, and it’s a totally totally different story to dwell that reality throughout a very poor begin to the season.
The Nets solely view themselves as really having blown one actual sport. The different 4 losses got here towards the New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks and Dallas Mavericks, all groups positioned to make deep playoff runs this season, all of whom have rosters which have largely been constructed equally for years towards a contemporary Nets workforce nonetheless looking for its id.
“Things aren’t bad. We lost a basketball game,” veteran huge man Markieff Morris mentioned after shootaround Monday morning. “I believe that now we have to understand that, six video games into the season with a model new workforce, Indiana was a nasty loss as a result of they actually outplayed us, however the video games earlier than that, we performed towards an excellent workforce that had some good gamers and so they’ve been enjoying collectively for awhile, so they’d some camaraderie that we’re attempting to get.
“And six games into the season, like, I don’t — our best basketball is ahead of us for sure.”
Yet on the opposite facet of the identical coin is real concern, concern the cross-country Los Angeles Lakers have additionally proven for a championship workforce constructed round LeBron James that, just like the Nets, can be off to a 1-5 begin.
What if issues don’t get higher? What if the problems start to compound? What if the locker room fractures? Is this workforce robust sufficient to maintain one other dropping streak?
The Nets have been preaching persistence however now, as a fanbase supporting a workforce with the NBA’s third-highest payroll begins craving for ends in the win-loss column, that persistence will really be put to the check.
“I think our approach as coaches has been to be honest and fair at the same time — to point out when it’s not up to our standards, to point out where we need to improve and be fair at the same time,” Steve Nash mentioned forward of a second-straight tipoff towards the Pacers on Monday. “I think deep down, that’s the only way we can really respect the process, if we are honest that there are certain things that need to get better and be firm with those things. We’ve got to keep fighting. That’s the biggest thing. We can’t take our foot off the gas. I think we did last time out and we’ve got to resist the urge to not have that winning mentality, to be willing to go that extra step for each other.”
That being mentioned, the Nets nonetheless really feel strongly about their probabilities of turning the season round. Ben Simmons mentioned the workforce had a players-only assembly the place he characterised the temper as “honest.”
“Obviously I’m not gonna talk about [what was said during the meeting], but it was honest,” mentioned Simmons. “That’s what winning teams do: Hold each other accountable, be open and talk to your teammates and respect that.”
Simmons additionally glared a glance of disgust when requested if the Nets can flip their season round.
“F—k yeah, I believe it,” he mentioned. “I believe we can be the best team in the NBA. I believe that.”
A Pacers supply additionally relayed confidence to the Daily News that the Nets — given their championship and veteran pedigree — would finally hit their stride and work out easy methods to win video games.
Provided, after all, that they offer it time and don’t fracture from inside earlier than enjoying their greatest basketball, the supply supplied as a caveat.
The key to protecting regular, in response to veteran guard Patty Mills, is to “keep things light,” not driving the highs too excessive or the lows too low.
“Just being able to stay level headed throughout this whole thing,” Mills mentioned at Monday’s shootaround. “Understand that this is a new group that we’re trying to find the dynamics to be able to make this thing work, and then, that takes time. So I think for us to be able to understand and go through it this early in the season, it’s good for us if we’re able to stay together and see the big picture.”
Mills doesn’t consider something is damaged, and the workforce seems totally beneath the belief that each one will work as soon as they get the time to mesh, when Simmons totally recovers from his offseason again surgical procedure, and when Joe Harris and Seth Curry make full returns from their current ankle surgical procedures.
“I don’t think anything needs fixing just yet. I think we need to play a lot harder, we need to execute, that’s what’s being said, but between the group: The group gets along really well,” Mills mentioned. “We’re all in the trenches here together. So to flip it to a positive, it’s good that we’re going through this early so we can figure it out. Just just making sure that we do stay together in the trenches to be able to work it all out.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com