You certainly can't absolve him of fault, but you also can't place the blame of the Brooklyn Nets' shortcomings squarely on Steve Nash's shoulders.
The Kevin Durant- and Kyrie Irving-led Nets have their season on the line Monday after going down 3-0 to the Boston Celtics in their first round playoff series. Now, the Celtics can put away the Nets on their home floor, which would bring an end to one of the most tumultuous seasons for any team in a long time.
Nash very well might be the fall guy for the Nets’ underachieving, as there’s a real possibility he gets canned once Brooklyn’s season ends – barring a historic turnaround that at this juncture seems highly unlikely.
During an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Monday, Stadium NBA analyst Jeff Goodman opined that you can give Durant and Irving any coach you want, they’re not going to respect them.
“I feel so bad for Steve Nash,” Goodman said. “Like, honestly, you come into your coaching career and he’s the nicest, most positive human being in the world. But you’ve got to deal with, come on, James Harden, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant …
“Who are you going to use to coach? Like seriously, go pick somebody. It doesn’t matter who you pick to coach Kyrie and KD, who do you want to pick? Mike Krzyzewski? Is he going to want to deal with them? I know they have respect for him, but they have respect for him when he was coaching them for Team USA and at Duke in college. I don’t know if those guys are going to have respect for anybody coaching them.
“I think if I was him I’d be like, I’m done. This isn’t worth it. It’s not worth it. I mean seriously, you don’t even get to coach.”
The Nets are at a potential inflection point as a franchise. They had to overwork both Durant and Irving down the stretch to even get into the postseason, and now Durant has been stifled by the Celtics while Irving has seemed checked out since Game 2. Ben Simmons has been unreliable throughout his career, and an embarrassing sweep would have Sean Marks thinking long and hard about Brooklyn’s personnel – both on the floor and on the coaching staff.
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram