The Nets' miserable start to the 2022-23 season is beginning to feel like a distant memory.
Brooklyn is 23-12 and riding a 10-game winning streak after eking out a 1-point victory over the Hawks in Atlanta on Wednesday night. The thrilling win moved the Nets into second place in the Eastern Conference and, amazingly, gave them the second best record in the NBA.
It's been a stunning narrative reversal considering the Nets started the season 2-5, a dismal showing which led to the firing of former head coach Steve Nash. The team was further embroiled in controversy and distraction when star point guard Kyrie Irving was suspended eight games for promoting an anti-Semitic documentary on social media.
Asked to explain the Nets' turnaround after Wednesday's win, Durant credited new head coach Jacque Vaughn for helping the team to find its "identity."
"When you follow the game plan that works, you start believing more and more in what we're doing every day," Durant said. "I felt like we didn't have an identity to start the season, and then we started to figure it out these last few weeks, this last month or so. We're starting to move, we're figuring out our identity as a team.
"You walk into every game believing, 'Alright, if we stick to this template and to this structure that we have, we'll be fine regardless of what goes on in the game.' Up and down, get down big, get up big and lose the lead -- just knowing what we want to do every time we step on the floor just keeps our mind at ease. We have that belief in whatever Jacque tells us."
It's no secret that the Nets' turnaround has coincided with Nash's dismissal and Vaughn's promotion. After the brutal start under Nash, the team has gone 21-7 under Vaughn, and Nets players have gone out of their way to praise Vaughn on numerous occasions.
Meanwhile it's pretty clear that Nash didn't enjoy that kind of support in the locker room. After requesting a trade in the offseason, Durant famously doubled down on his position by suggesting either he be traded or Nash and general Sean Marks be fired.
Neither scenario came to pass during the summer, but Durant ultimately got at least part of what he wanted when Nash was ousted in early November.
While it's probably unfair to suggest Durant was going out of his way to criticize Nash on Wednesday, it's not exactly a stretch to consider his assessment of the team's improvement an indirect critique of Nash's poor performance.
In Nash's defense, his fate was likely sealed once Durant requested the trade, even though the request was later rescinded. Further complicating matters for the Nets early on was the fact that Ben Simmons had a year's worth of rust to shake off upon making his Brooklyn debut after sitting out all of last season. Simmons has since returned to form as an ace defender and, offensively, a part-time facilitator and a threat to attack the rim.
Still, the Nets are clearly responding to Vaughn in a way they never did under Nash.
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