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The Nets’ teaching employees has suffered some severe churn in Steve Nash’s first two offseasons. However Igor Kokoskov, who was employed over the summer season to affix Nash’s employees, isn’t simply an addition — he’s a confidant.
Nash is coming off a summer season that noticed his resident famous person Kevin Durant attempt to get him fired, and strolling right into a season with sufficient unrest that he was lately booed by Nets followers on the crew’s annual Apply within the Park. He’s going to wish each ally and stalwart he can get, and Kokoskov qualifies as each.
“We return a methods,” Nash stated wistfully of Kokoskov, who’d labored with him from 2008-12 on the high-octane Suns. “I feel he’s simply helped me.
“On this league, I feel most individuals have seen all of it — most of us have seen all the things — however he helped me in the summertime actually plan and arrange how we wish to disseminate our units and our actions and implement them. He has been unbelievable so far as serving to me get readability and group and bounce concepts off him and begin to construct one thing.
Certainly one of Nash’s first calls when he obtained the Brooklyn job in 2020 was a long-distance one to Turkey, throughout which he tried to recruit Kokoskov to his first employees. The Serb had simply taken over Fenerbahçe, and finally opted to remain put and lead the crew to the Turkish finals and EuroLeague playoffs. It took a while, however Nash lastly obtained his man.
Nash had seen defensive coordinator Ime Udoka and offensive coordinator Mike D’Antoni depart after that first season, then one other offensive coordinator Jordan Ott and Amar’e Stoudemire depart after final season’s tumultuous marketing campaign.
Having performed beneath D’Antoni and alongside Stoudemire in Phoenix, Nash had a familiarity with them that helped throughout his introduction to teaching. This upcoming season he’ll as soon as once more lean closely on one other former Solar, Kokoskov, who's tasked with being Nash’s third offensive coordinator in as a few years.
“We’ve had such disparate sorts of groups all through the final couple of years, it’s been actually laborious,” stated Nash. “And this yr, hopefully, we are able to stop any points with the adversity that comes or doesn’t come, and mainly be organized and dialed in to sustaining the best way we wish to play. I feel additionally our roster can maintain extra adversity this yr as properly.
“[Kokoskov] has been unimaginable. It’s been nice to work with an outdated buddy as properly, and he’s actually helped me in a whole lot of methods.”
Kokoskov — anticipated to maneuver the Nets’ away from being utterly isolation-reliant to extra of a movement offense — had been an assistant beneath D’Antoni’s successor, Terry Porter, after which Alvin Gentry for the tail finish of Nash’s prime. The pair clicked largely from seeing the sport the identical method and having related offensive philosophies.
“[J]ust unimaginable offensive encyclopedia,” Nash stated of Kokoskov. “He was my assistant coach again within the day in Phoenix for a few years and simply has nice expertise, he’s been within the league 25 years.”
Kokoskov, who additionally served because the Suns’ head coach in 2018-19, has been round, working as an assistant with the Clippers, Pistons, Cavaliers, Jazz, Kings and Mavericks. He has spent this coaching camp and the preseason attempting to interrupt Brooklyn of final season’s iso habits and preaching extra movement.
“Ball motion. Ball motion,” Kyrie Irving stated of the Nets’ new mantra. “You take a look at a few of our possessions final yr, it was a whole lot of one-on-one. You guys talked about it usually, and we have been properly conscious of it, that that offense, when the ball sticks, it’s simply not the best model of basketball you may play.
“We’re giving the protection some nights off once we simply go one-on-one. … [There] is usually a time and place once we make the most of that, however proper now, having Ben [Simmons] be one among our lead guards and him getting up and down the court docket, the ball’s hopping, it feels good.”
A crew with Irving and Durant is all the time going to make use of isolation, however offensively they’re looking for simple baskets by getting out in transition and thriving in early offense. Even of their losses this preseason, they’ve moved the ball within the halfcourt — it’s simply been sloppy at instances.
Brooklyn’s help fee was fifth-best coming into Friday’s preseason finale in Minnesota, their turnovers falling each recreation, from 27 within the opening loss to 26 in opposition to the Warmth to a crisp 14 in Wednesday’s win at Milwaukee.
Kokoskov — who helped Detroit to the 2004 NBA title and Dallas to final season’s Western Convention Finals — has his fingerprints throughout that change.
“Yeah, however I’d say there’s a whole lot of delegation amongst the employees,” Joe Harris advised The Publish. “Igor undoubtedly has a hand in a bunch of it. There’s a whole lot of enter from a whole lot of the coaches, however the units that we’ve been doing, yeah, have been Igor’s implementation.
“They wish to put us in sure spots spacing-wise, however then a whole lot of it's simply as much as studying and reacting and taking part in off of each other; as a result of that’s sometimes once you get your greatest offense, once you’re in a position to free circulate, play with good tempo. However when we have to run stuff, we are able to. We now have the units in place, movement units or particular actions.”
The annual GM survey was nowhere close to as sort to Brooklyn because it has been previously few years, a results of final season’s disappointing marketing campaign. However Kokoskov did obtain votes for “greatest assistant coach,” a class former Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson — now with Golden State — ran away with.
“I imply, JO (Jordan Ott) was an amazing basketball thoughts as properly,” Durant stated. “All of us run the identical sort of ideas, simply primarily based on the gamers that you've got in a bunch and in your crew. So JO added one thing to our crew that's nonetheless right here, after which Igor is sort of attempting to fine-tune it, and craft it his method as properly.
“It’s all a collaborative effort on what we see, the place I just like the ball, the place Ky likes the ball, the place Joe needs to shoot it from. All of us have these conversations, it’s all the time flowing on what we have to do to be a greater offensive crew.”
Who're these guys?
Kokoskov isn’t the one new face subsequent to Nash this season. G League coach Adam Caporn and Nets video coordinator Trevor Hendry each have been promoted to take a seat on the bench this season.
“Trevor has been right here for six years working the video room; he’s only a grinder, [great] work ethic,” Nash stated. “He’s locked himself in that video room all these years, so has an amazing deal with on the sport, the NBA recreation, all of the variance all through the league, and I feel it was time. He earned the transfer up.
“Capes was our G League coach final yr and has an unimaginable participant growth acumen, and training acumen. So he’s heading participant growth after he did that on the Nationwide Institute in Australia. He’s been an assistant coach on the Australia Nationwide Crew, he’s been a head coach within the G League and in addition within the Australian Professional League. So I feel he provides so much to our group on all these ranges.”
Blissful Anniversary!
Barclays Heart is celebrating its tenth anniversary this season, together with the Nets’ transfer from New Jersey to Brooklyn.
After ending their prior season at Prudential Heart in Newark, the Nets’ first recreation in Barclays was a preseason tilt in opposition to the Washington Wizards on October 15, 2012, 10 years in the past Saturday. Their regular-season opener was delayed by Hurricane Sandy, however came about Nov. 3 with a win over the Toronto Raptors.
The Nets and father or mother firm BSE International are planning a number of commemorative occasions.
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