If Jacque Vaughn’s message is still getting through as he claims, it begs the question of whether it’s enough. Because the results certainly aren’t.
Brooklyn is on the verge of passing through a dire situation and entering a catastrophe.
If the Nets learned anything from the breakup of the Big Three, it’s that the team has to be on the same page as its best players after seeing their divorces garner national attention. That’s the first rule of NBA clubs.
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden all requested trades, with the latter putting Brooklyn at a disadvantage after previously denying any complaints. With Mikal Bridges being the centerpiece back for Durant, the Nets should not only listen to his opinion, but actually listen to what the face of the franchise is saying.
Brooklyn heads into the All-Star break coming off a 50-point loss against Boston. It was the kind of surrender that required an honest self-evaluation of what went wrong, not just on a random Wednesday in February, but throughout the season.
“Yes, you have to learn and solve problems. That’s pretty much it. You can’t just leave this alone and think, ‘Oh, I’m done with this.’ No,” Bridges said. “Well, even if you lose at the end, if you lose by 50 points, that might be the case. It’s not just ‘leave it alone.’ A lot of is not right and needs to be corrected.”
Bridges, a two-time NCAA champion at Villanova, helped Phoenix reach the NBA Finals in 2021 and earn the league’s best record in 2022. He knows the habits of winning and knows the difference between perseverance and refusal to stick your head in the sand.
And the ostrich’s time is over.
It’s important for the Nets to stay connected with Bridges and the Nets’ next best player, unrestricted free agent Nic Claxton.
“It was disappointing,” Claxton said. “To be honest, this season has been pretty disappointing.”
One player’s explanation for Thursday’s loss, which could not be printed, began with an “F.” But despite Bourne’s growing backlash from fans, both he and Bridges insist the players are not ignoring him.
“I think it’s far from that,” Vaughn said in response to questions from the Post. “We have [Cam Johnson], never played with Dennis Schröder, which makes sense.Dayron [Sharpe] I just came back. … They haven’t played together before, so it’s going to take some commitment to accelerate things. ”
Bridges agreed that his players followed the game plan in Boston. But there are growing doubts throughout the league about whether those game plans are sufficient.
“Whatever game plan we had there, we just executed it the way we were supposed to do it. But it’s tough,” Bridges said. “The scheme alone is tough, there’s a lot of mismatches, it’s tough switching everything up. And offensively, it’s tough again, because a guy like Ben [Simmons] No matter who’s playing and he’s not here, it’s a different dynamic when he’s there.
“And even with Ben, what we’re running isn’t really a super offense. Everybody backs up. But we can’t play like that because we don’t have him here.”
Simmons has played in just 12 games this season due to a back injury. Brooklyn is a respectable .500 batting average when he plays, but is sadly 15-27 without him.
“You can’t just run around like a chicken with its head cut off,” Bridges said.
“It’s definitely going to be a completely different game for everyone when he’s in there,” Claxton said. “We’re playing fast. He’s getting guys open looks in transition.”
The Nets improved their pace and open 3-point shooting percentage with Simmons on the floor, increasing their effective field goal percentage from .534 to .554. His influence is such that, with or without, he requires a separate game plan.
“Sure. It’s like, extreme, but imagine you have Joel and Philadelphia. [Embiid]. When he’s not playing, he can’t play the same style. So we need to know how to handle that,” Bridges said.
“We have to know what we’re doing. We have to come in as a team, as coaches, and find a game plan.”
Their best players are on the same page.
