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Per Stat Muse, Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash has an impressive record of 92-62 in his first career head coaching job. In his first two seasons as Brooklyn’s leader, he has already coached a notable list of players, including Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. Still with an amass of talent, Nash has yet to reach a conference finals. He was thoroughly outcoached by former Nets assistant turned Boston Celtics head coach, Ime Udoka , via a 4-0 sweep in the first round of this year’s playoffs. And though the Celtics are no doubt one of the top contenders in the Eastern conference, not being able to register a win with a team led by Kyrie and Durant is not a great look.
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Nets Rumored To Be Making Major Coaching ‘Shake-up’
Nash sat side by side with Nets general manager Sean Marks at the team’s end of the year media availability on May 11, seemingly confirming Marks’ support of Nash as head coach of the Nets. But a recent tweet from the NetsDaily Twitter account suggests that major changes are coming to the Nets coaching staff.
“Hearing big shake-up in Nets coaching staff coming … and Amar’e [Stoudemire] got out ahead of the wave,” NetsDaily said from its Twitter account on May 13.
Former Nets Coach: Kyrie’s Absence ‘Hurt Us’
Amare Stoudemire was a player development assistant with the Nets for two seasons. But on May 12, Nash’s former Phoenix Suns teammate announced that he would not be returning to the team for the 2022-23 season. During an appearance on “ESPN’s First Take”, Stoudemire did not mince words about Nets All-Star guard Kyrie Irving when asked about the impact he had on the result of the Nets’ season.
“Yeah, I think it hurt us. It definitely hurt us because we didn’t have enough consistency with Kyrie to build chemistry with the group, with the team,” Stoudemire said of Irving’s absence to ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith.
“He’s playing only away games depending which city it is … can’t play in New York … therefore we had different lineups, different matchups depending on the game schedule. So, it made it difficult for us coaches to figure out who’s going to play in spite of Kyrie. So, it was difficult for us to manage that so yeah, it was part of that.”
Stoudemire: Kyrie’s Hiatus Affected Team Chemistry
Irving only played in 29 games for the Nets this past season. At the beginning of this season, the Nets barred Irving from playing with the team after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination. However, they reinstated him in January. Stoudemire says that not being able to have James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant on the floor at the same time had a negative impact on the team’s chemistry.
“Obviously, we couldn’t build the total chemistry with the total group, with those three guys, for James, Kev, and Kyrie to play at the same time,” Stoudemire continued. “We didn’t have a lot of game experience with those three guys on the court. So, I can’t really comment on those three guys together but it didn’t help.”
For the Nets to have as talented a roster as they have had over the last two seasons, failing to make it to the conference finals in consecutive years is indeed a disappointment. It will be interesting to see what changes are in Brooklyn’s future.
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