The Brooklyn Nets have underachieved a great deal in the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving era, but the blame should not lie solely on the superstars, says one former NBA player.
Stephen Jackson, who was in New York for the premier of Kevin Durant’s documentary “NYC Point Gods,” was asked about the lack of success the superstar duo has had in Brooklyn.
“It’s been a lot going on so I can’t just say that it’s entirely on them,” Jackson sadi, per SNY’s Ian Begley. “For me, knowing the game and watching the game, I don’t like the coaching situation. I love Steve Nash, but I think there’s a lot of things they could have done differently.
“Lineups in the playoffs, not playing Blake Griffin until the last minute — there’s a lot of things that went wrong.”
Nash was hired by the Nets in 2020 — a year after the team signed Durant and Irving and before the first season Durant was healthy enough to play in. In two years as head coach, Nash has a 92-62 record but is 7-9 in the playoffs — getting ousted in the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Bucks last year and swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round this past season.
The Nets front office has continued to show support for Nash, but he has not been well received by his own players. Irving, in particular, has not seen eye-to-eye with the head coach and even second-year player Cam Thomas appeared annoyed when Nash was referenced in an interview after a Summer League game.
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Meanwhile, Jackson says he understands why everyone immediately looks toward the stars when things do not work, but he stressed looking at the whole picture.
“When teams [are] not winning you automatically look at the star players – and you have to; to whom much is given, much is required,” Jackson continued. “So you respect that. But me knowing the game – to win a championship, and to be on top at the end of the season, everything has to come together, everything has to work. You can’t have guys all over the place. And you see that there.”
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