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Kevin Durant lamented that the Nets’ subpar season value them respect all through the NBA.
Listening to opposing gamers and exterior executives underscores simply how a lot.
“I really feel like we don’t have any respect on the market on the court docket,” Durant mentioned. “And that’s what I need for us: respect amongst the NBA group as a group on how we play on each ends of the ground, from GMs all the best way right down to the tools supervisor.
“I need that respect, and also you try this by how you're employed each single day. We skipped some steps in how we labored all year long final yr due to the circumstances — vaccine mandates, folks disgruntled, accidents. We may’ve stored urgent ahead, and that’s what I attempt to do as a participant. I’m not preaching one thing I don’t follow. I are available right here, each rep issues to me, so I need all people to really feel the identical approach.”
Durant plunged the Nets into chaos together with his commerce request this summer time, however few can query his expertise. The Nets have been 36-19 when Durant performed final season, a stable 54-win tempo befitting a contender, even when their work habits have been mentioned to be unbefitting a champion. However the Nets completely capitulated in Durant’s absence — going simply 8-19, a feeble 24-win tempo — and that’s when many started to doubt their toughness, each psychological and bodily.
“I agree with what he mentioned: They [were] delicate. Simply level clean, interval,” mentioned summer time acquisition Markieff Morris, who spent final season with the Warmth, of the Nets’ popularity across the league. “After we performed up towards them, they have been delicate. Simply go proper up of their chest. And that’s what we did.”
The frailties Durant cited even have been on show within the early a part of the preseason. The Nets have been outmuscled and outworked in Thursday’s 109-80 loss to the Warmth. Durant had 22 factors on 8-of-12 taking pictures; his teammates mixed for 58 factors on 21-of-61 taking pictures.
The NBA’s annual common supervisor survey drives house how far opinions on the Nets have fallen. The identical executives who fawned over the Nets a yr in the past voted them this yr because the league finest in only one class: being unpredictable.
After getting a staggering 72 p.c of the votes because the projected 2022 NBA champion, this yr the Nets didn’t even crack the highest 5. Final season, 83 p.c of common managers tabbed them to win the Japanese Convention; for 2022-23, that determine fell to seven p.c, and the plurality of respondents (31 p.c) picked them to complete fourth.
Even Nets GM Sean Marks, in talking with a TV community in his native New Zealand, acknowledged, “Our window…[is] getting smaller and smaller and smaller.”
Doubt about it
Durant is about the one factor that stayed fixed from final yr’s GM survey: He once more was voted as the very best small ahead within the league. However whereas his skill is unparalleled, many fear in regards to the spindly star’s well being or long-term dedication to Brooklyn.
After sitting out all of 2019-20 rehabbing a ruptured Achilles, Durant missed 23 straight video games in 2020-21 due to hamstring points and 27 extra final season, together with 21 in a row attributable to a knee damage.
The way in which the Nets performed in going 5-16 whereas Durant was sidelined as a result of sprained MCL sowed doubts within the star’s thoughts. He has mentioned the dearth of collective battle they confirmed throughout that point led to his commerce request and a subsequent ultimatum — since rescinded — that the group fireplace Marks and head coach Steve Nash.
Durant’s questions are well-founded. Does Nash have the power to demand a tradition of accountability? Can the Nets preserve Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons on the ground collectively sufficient to construct chemistry?
Irving described the current scenario across the Nets as a “clusterf–ok.”
“There was a stage of uncertainty on this constructing, not only for final yr, however for the previous couple of years,” Irving mentioned. “And that accountability [Durant] requested for must be accessible and accessible always. We must always have that kind of surroundings. So I echo the identical sentiments, and I felt the identical approach. I simply felt the awkwardness.
“It’s going to be an extended journey forward of us as a result of there are these obstacles. Questions on well being. The [healthiest] group wins each single yr … In an effort to be wholesome, it may possibly’t simply be bodily. It needs to be mentally, it needs to be emotionally, and now we have to have synergy as a group the place we perceive our highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses. … We don’t know what this group goes to color on this canvas this yr as of but.”
‘Not making an attempt to look too far forward’
Irving isn’t mistaken about availability being crucial skill. Irving’s and James Harden’s accidents led to the Nets’ second-round loss to the eventual champion Bucks within the 2021 playoffs, the identical approach the Bucks are satisfied not having Khris Middleton proved expensive within the convention finals towards the Celtics final season.
And Irving’s refusal to get a COVID-19 vaccine restricted him to simply 29 video games final season. Although the New York COVID-19 vaccine mandates have been lifted, Irving at all times has been injury-prone. Having misplaced out on a completely assured four-year, $182 million contract extension and opted in to the ultimate yr of his deal, will probably be fascinating to see whether or not taking part in for optimum cash in a contract yr can inspire the person who’s performed in simply 103 of 226 regular-season video games as a Web to remain on the court docket night-in and night-out.
Can Simmons — who missed all of final season attributable to psychological well being points and a herniated disk in his again — give the Nets constant play? And, maybe most significantly, can the Nets as a complete get again to having a day-in, day-out work ethic, not taking follow or the early season calmly and presuming a deep playoff run is their proper merely due to the assembled expertise and large names?
“We’re not trying as far forward,” Joe Harris mentioned. “Final season, we had such excessive expectations for ourselves that we appeared to the playoffs so much even within the very starting of the season. It felt like even in a number of the video games early on the place we’d win, [we] felt like we weren’t profitable by sufficient or we weren’t on the championship caliber that we had the expectation for ourselves. So a whole lot of the stuff now's simply being as attentive and targeted simply on the day-to-day stuff and never making an attempt to look too far forward.”
Harris, who was restricted to simply 14 appearances final season attributable to an ankle damage, acknowledged Durant’s assertion that the Nets started to skip steps at follow. It was one of many former MVP’s largest complaints behind closed doorways, and has change into a degree of emphasis.
“When you concentrate on championship groups, in the event you are available and also you watch follow a whole lot of occasions, you possibly can really feel it as a result of you understand how attentive guys are, how targeted they're, locked in each follow — you are feeling the significance of that each day,” Harris mentioned. “Not that we weren’t doing that final yr, nevertheless it was a bit little bit of trying down the highway, feeling the loss from the prior yr within the playoffs and eager to get again to that time, and looking out previous a number of the video games that we had within the early season as an alternative of paying attention and targeted on the current.
“It’s a cliché, nevertheless it’s…so much tougher to do than you understand. So it’s one thing that we’re making an attempt to be actually cognizant of. … We’re having a very good [camp]. Then tomorrow we’ll have one other good day, and we simply preserve having these constructing blocks that we’ll construct off of. …We’re not going to take these preseason video games as a right no matter how a lot time guys are taking part in. The entire focus is simply: ‘Alright, how can we get higher at present?’ After which simply constructing off of that.”
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