The Brooklyn Nets started this season as favorites of many experts to reach the NBA Finals of the Eastern Conference. Instead, they were swept away by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. All that remains now is to try to understand what went wrong in Brooklyn.
The James Harden trade
The Nets started this season with a big three: theoretically sound Kevin Durant, theoretically on the court Kyrie Irving and one-time NBA MVP in James Harden, who was acquired last January in an exchange with the Houston Rockets. It was a high-risk move to bring together these talented veterans, given that they all broke up with their previous franchises.
To anyone’s shock, the trio couldn’t stand it and Harden left. With their limited ability to potentially influence All Star in the Harden deal, they arranged an exchange of discontent with the Philadelphia 76ers, which returned the great talent, the first great man in defense, Ben Simmons.
Nets’ gambling was based on the idea that Simmons refrained from playing just because his relationship with the Sixers fell apart after his notorious offensive crash during last year’s playoffs. As it turned out, this was more than that: Simmons’ absence was due to both physical and mental problems, which ultimately prevented him from playing one minute in Brooklyn this season.
Yes, in the long run the Nets may have something to do with the Simmons acquisition. That said, the compulsion to make a deal with Harden and settling with this particular return hurt Brooklyn’s chances of success this year.
Kyrie Irving
The main reason Harden was fed up with his situation in Brooklyn? Well, he couldn’t help but be involved in the endless circus that was Irving’s battle with New York City. Covid-19 restrictions in New York mean that unvaccinated players cannot play home games at the Barclays Center, making it impossible for Irving to play in Brooklyn for most of the regular season. During many important matches, Irving was a spectator.
Kyrie Irving: “I feel like I let the team down when I couldn’t play … It was a distraction at times.”
– Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) April 26, 2022
Many other players – despite their personal beliefs – would simply get the vaccine, especially when it affected their team’s chances of winning the championship. After all, the engaged Irving is one of the most dangerous players in the entire league.
Irving, for his own reasons, refused to make any such sacrifice for his teammates. If you’re wondering if this could be the reason Harden eventually got out of town, it’s the common opinion, although there has never been any confirmation from Harden himself. One person who still thinks the problem has affected the season is Kyrie Irving. “I think [my vaccine status] at times it became a distraction, “the defender said after losing to the Celtics on Monday. “And as you can see, we’ve just made some drastic changes.”
Kevin Durant was injured
So the Nets were without Irving in many games, Harden was in Philadelphia, and Simmons was on the bench. It all depends on Durant to help take on much of the team’s burden. Unfortunately, Durant suffered an MCL injury on January 15 and was gone for more than a month and a half (KD was not the only Nets player to miss time, Joe Harris’s season was ruined by an ankle injury).
When Durant returned, he was pressured to pull the Nets in seventh place, which required them to win game after game just to reach the playoffs. By the time the playoffs began, Durant was beginning to feel the effects of the tough minutes he was playing at the end of the regular season.
That’s not a complete excuse for his early fights against Boston – especially since the Celtics missed starting center Robert Williams in the first two games of the series – but that couldn’t help. He scored 39 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in game 4, but has been empty so far.
Steve Nash Judge spoke of fatigue and, in particular, the burden on Kevin Durant upon his return.
It made me wonder about the leaders in the NBA in the minutes played in the last month (regular season / playoffs / playoffs).
Come on figure.
(Durant has spent more than 40 minutes in 9 of his last 10.) pic.twitter.com/281qCP3xeo
– Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) April 25, 2022
Steve Nash
Steve Nash sometimes looked beyond his depth as a coach this season. Photo: Brad Penner / USA Today Sports
The Nets have a habit of hiring mascots, not head coaches: let’s not forget that they brought Jason Kidd exactly the season after he retired as a player. So it wasn’t surprising that Steve Nash was awarded the team’s keys to the Hall of Fame in September 2020, even though he had never been an NBA assistant coach before.
The Nets players backed Nash on Monday night after their season ended, but at times during this clean-up, Nash looked more like a babysitter than a coach. With his team losing 2-0 and facing a decisive match 3, Nash seemed allergic to announcing timeouts and designing games, hoping his vets would come up with the right course of action on their own. In most cases, they didn’t.
After hiring Nash, Irving responded to the news cheerfully: “I really don’t see having a head coach.” It may not be the most polite statement in the world, but Nash did little to prove his defender wrong this postseason.
Boston Celtics
However, it is difficult to know what Nash could do, given how diligently the Celtics outplayed his team. While the Brooklyn dysfunction took over the headlines, Boston had to be preferred from the start.
After stumbling in the first half of the season with first head coach Name Udoka, who is still learning to work after an impressive internship with Greg Popovich in the San Antonio Spurs and Nash himself with the Nets, the team recovered, Udoka entered his own and the Celtics most -they finally found their identity.
Jason Tatum and Jaylan Brown have learned to play with each other again. After being promoted to starting position, Marcus Smart is set to be the NBA Defender of the Year … and the rest of his team is not far behind. The Celtics were the best defensive team in the league in the second half of the regular season, and at the end of the offensive there were no setbacks. Given the chance to dive into the final game of the season and avoid a confrontation against Durant and Irving in the first round of the playoffs, the Celtics played full force against the B-team of Memphis Grizzlies to grab the second placed in the East.
They took the challenge because they knew they could beat the Nets on their own terms. By betting on themselves, the Celtics have not only avenged their loss to the Nets in last year’s playoffs, but may bring the entire Brooklyn organization back on the board.
Add Comment