Between Kevin Durant’s summer transfer request, the controversy around Kyrie Irving which led to his suspension, and the departure of Steve Nash, it’s an understatement to say that the Nets season had started badly.
But for the past few weeks, we’ve only been talking about Brooklyn in the “sports” column, so for their results on the court. And they are very good: nine wins in a row! Is this regained calm the key to the success of the franchise today?
“We are no longer diverted from the fact that today is today”, answered before the victory against Cleveland Jacque Vaughn, for ESPN. “The most important thing now is to try to win matches. When you get to the room, it’s all about basketball, sports. »
Kevin Durant seems to have another reading. For the winger, it was not the group that refocused on basketball, it was the media that stopped talking about something else…
“Frankly, we have always been focused on basketball. I mean no disrespect to the journalists, but it was the outside world, media and fans, who thought we didn’t care about our sport, that we weren’t focused anymore. We always have been. There is nothing more to say outside the field, it is a fact, so there are no more discussions around our team. We were in trouble at the start of the season, I’m not going to say the opposite, but we always kept our focus on basketball. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the stories around Kyrie, but the game has always been central. »
“We made a commitment, as a group, to only talk about basketball among ourselves”
If he assures that nothing has changed in substance for the Nets, the 2014 MVP still cannot deny that the start of the season was polluted by problems, whether it was the Kyrie Irving affair, the departure of Steve Nash or the bad results. That’s where Jacque Vaughn’s promotion did some good, too.
“I had friends asking me if everything was okay, because there were so many crazy things going on with the Nets. Truly ? It wasn’t so crazy.” remembers the former Warriors. “We didn’t talk about that between us. We were doing our job. The outside noise has been there since day one. What we did was simplify things on both sides of the pitch. The coach reinforced our roles. It was important to do so. »
The coach confirms for his part that it was necessary to remove the bad vibes from the group, to return to the essentials: the field. For that, things had to be simplified.
“It’s part of it, that’s for sure”, he assures. “We made a commitment, as a group, to only talk about basketball among ourselves. I hope that nothing, no outside noise, will disturb us. The guys do an amazing job of protecting each other. On my side, I’m a simple person, so I try to keep things simple. I insisted on what was going to be beneficial for the team. We stripped our systems too. We are simple in what we do, so that the guys play with freedom. It’s important if we want the players to give their all. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Kevin Durant | 32 | 36.4 | 56.3 | 36.0 | 92.7 | 0.3 | 6.3 | 6.6 | 5.3 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 29.9 |
| Kyrie Irving | 23 | 36.6 | 48.3 | 34.0 | 91.9 | 0.8 | 4.1 | 5.0 | 4.6 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 2.7 | 25.8 |
| Nicholas Claxton | 30 | 27.8 | 74.5 | 0.0 | 45.9 | 2.6 | 6.0 | 8.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 11.8 |
| Royce O’Neale | 31 | 35.2 | 39.7 | 42.4 | 64.0 | 0.8 | 4.2 | 5.0 | 4.3 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 9.5 |
| Tj Warren | 9 | 17.2 | 53.8 | 35.7 | 83.3 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 8.9 |
| Seth Curry | 22 | 21.7 | 43.3 | 39.3 | 94.4 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 8.5 |
| Joe Harris | 29 | 25.7 | 42.5 | 38.2 | 70.6 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 1.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 8.5 |
| Ben Simmons | 23 | 27.2 | 62.0 | 0.0 | 48.6 | 1.0 | 5.7 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 2.2 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 8.4 |
| Yuta Watanabe | 20 | 19.3 | 55.8 | 53.3 | 73.3 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 8.0 |
| Edmond Sumner | 28 | 15.4 | 45.2 | 29.1 | 92.9 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 7.4 |
| cam thomas | 25 | 14.1 | 40.2 | 36.7 | 78.3 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 6.6 |
| Patty Mills | 22 | 12.1 | 46.9 | 40.9 | 91.7 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 5.8 |
| Markieff Morris | 19 | 11.4 | 44.3 | 48.7 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 4.2 |
| Day’ron Sharpe | 18 | 8.6 | 52.2 | 75.0 | 70.6 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 3.5 |
| David Duke | 14 | 9.0 | 44.2 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 3.0 |
| Kessler Edwards | 13 | 5.7 | 27.3 | 18.2 | 50.0 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| Alondes Williams | 1 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
