The Nets are saying all the right things, so far, that’s all they’re doing.
When it comes to talking the talk, this team has what it takes. If there was a championship series for saying all the right things, the Nets might be the favorites in a four-game sweep.
The season is 26 games old for Brooklyn, there’s still time to look like a team ready to contend for a championship. And there’s still time to look like a team that knows how to play defense.
There’s still time, however, is no longer a good enough excuse.
Yes, there’s been hurdles along the way for the Nets – major hurdles.
Spencer Dinwiddie, three games into the season, went down with a partially torn ACL in his right knee. Kyrie Irving stepped away from the team for personal reasons. Trading for James Harden stripped the Nets of their depth, which was a team strength. More recently, Kevin Durant has been sidelined once again due to the league’s health and safety protocols.
It hasn’t been what first-year head coach Steve Nash was hoping for. And you don’t have to be in the locker room to know that much.
At just 14-12 on the season, the Nets don’t look like a team ready to compete for an NBA Championship. It’s no longer about when will they figure out their issues, it’s can they?
Their most recent setback, a dreadful 122-112 loss at the Detroit Pistons, looked like a team wanting to be anywhere else in the world but there.
After the game, the Nets had plenty to say. And it all made sense.
“Its about personal pride,” Nash said. “We have to decide what kind of team we want to be.”
Pride, yes, it should be about that. And giving up 38 first quarter points to a last place team is unacceptable.
“You’ve got to want to fight with your teammates, make it extremely hard on the other team, make them miserable. We didn’t do that. … We’ve got a lot to clean up. Number one is that attitude and that competition level and that connectivity. Those are things you can’t draw up; you can’t practice. You just have to bring it, and I didn’t feel that for 48 minutes.”
Nash is right, he’s right about all of it. And it’s his job to make sure the message gets across to his players. Preferably, sooner than later. Otherwise, it’s just all talk.
No one expects the Nets, as currently built, to become a defensive juggernaut. The effort, however, must get better. Because so far, it’s been abysmal.
“Defensively we have some lapses. We’ve gotta be better. I mean, [crap], I’ve gotta be better for us, defensively,” DeAndre Jordan said. “We all have to be better, but I just take a little bit more ownership on that end because that’s a thing that I love and a big part of why I’m out there for us. We’ve gotta be better, but I take a lot of that.”
Yes, they’re putting this together mostly on the fly. Little to no practice time. Blockbuster trade. Check, check, and check. We get it and we understand…
But now’s the time for a sense of urgency to come over the Nets. Because a 7-11 record against teams with losing records isn’t the template for a championship-contending team.
“We look very average,” said Irving. “We have the talent that the eye test shows we should be dominating. … We have to turn that corner. We haven’t done it yet, but we will. And I’m telling you the league’s going to be on notice when that happens.”
Again, there’s some logic. The Nets have the talent to turn it around. And when the Big Three is on the court, we’ve seen how quickly they can light up a scoreboard. But right now, the only notice the rest of the league has received is the one which emphasizes how this team plays down to their competition, they’re infuriatingly inconsistent, and can’t stop a nosebleed.
You must come in ready to work, every night. Right from the start. As Irving said, they look average. And, last time I checked, an average team won’t make it to the NBA Finals.
But, hey, at least they’re saying all the right things, right?
Image Credit: NBAE via Getty Images
