At the end of last April, Steve Nash assured that he wanted to continue the work started with the New York franchise, in this ” great working environment “. Despite a failed season, ending with a “sweep” against the Celtics, the Nets kept their coach in place.
And according to Steve Clifford, who acted as a consultant to the technician, they did well because he was not at fault. ” Sometimes we go after coaches for things they are not responsible for. The No. 1 problem last year in Brooklyn was missed games. That’s all », judges the Hornets coachstating that he had watched all the New Yorkers’ games.
The technician is of course referring to the fact that no player in the squad has had a full season – Patty Mills has played 81 games – and that the major players have accumulated a number of absences: only 55 games for Kevin Durant and 29 for Kyrie Irving, while Ben Simmons, who arrived during the season against James Harden, did not even tread a floor.
” Look at the record when Kevin was playing last year. I think we were fourth in attack, 12th in defence. Kyrie didn’t play for various reasons. If Kevin doesn’t get injured, we finish second or third with home court advantage, we don’t play Boston in the first round and it’s a totally different season. We can always be interested in all these other things. The main factor, by far, is missed games, that’s all “, Maintains the former Magic coach.
We won’t rewrite history, but when “KD” was injured in mid-January, the Nets were actually 2nd in the East with 27 wins and 15 losses. Upon his return, Brooklyn had plummeted in the standings, to 8th place (32-32)…
