After firing Jacque Vaughn, the Brooklyn Nets face a well-recognized problem

EXACTLY ONE YEAR after his tumultuous 3½-year tenure with the Brooklyn Nets got here to a detailed, Kyrie Irving returned to Barclays Middle.

It was Feb. 6, and Irving was on the town with the Dallas Mavericks, lower than per week after his former Nets operating mate, Kevin Durant, made his return to town the place the duo envisioned profitable NBA titles. As a substitute, a crew that did not dwell as much as championship aspirations had been changed by one battling for Japanese Convention play-in place.

“While you commerce some franchise gamers and issues are combined round, it is going to look completely different,” Irving stated after the Mavericks’ 119-107 victory, the second leg of Dallas’ lively seven-game win streak. “It’ll really feel completely different.

“You had among the finest gamers on the planet taking part in on this courtroom. … However now, it is time to begin recent and it is now not the identical strain.”

As a substitute of an NBA superteam that includes Irving, Durant and James Harden, Brooklyn extra resembles what Sean Marks inherited when he was launched because the franchise’s common supervisor in February 2016.

Then, Brooklyn was headed towards lacking the playoffs and did not have management of its subsequent three first-round draft picks. This season’s group seems destined for the same destiny.

The Nets are eleventh within the convention at 21-34 with lower than two months remaining within the common season. And, regardless of the draft picks gained within the Irving and Durant offers, they do not management their subsequent 4 first-round picks.

On Monday — the eighth anniversary of his hiring — Marks moved on from a coach for the third time in his tenure as GM, dismissing Jacque Vaughn after the crew’s collapse over the previous two months culminated in a 50-point loss to the Boston Celtics simply earlier than the All-Star break.

“It is concerning the degree of compete,” Marks stated earlier this week, discussing his determination to maneuver on from Vaughn. “We’re not going to be probably the most gifted crew within the league. I am not an fool. I completely perceive that. However, on the similar time, this can be a gifted group of younger males.

“These are issues that must be anticipated once you’re in a spot that we’re at proper now, the place we’re clawing and grappling for each single factor we are able to. That is what I’d hope to see over these subsequent 28 video games. …

“And that is most likely, to be fairly frank, some issues I have not seen.”

Brooklyn hopes to see such adjustments below interim coach Kevin Ollie, although Thursday’s blowout loss in his debut did little to gradual the crew’s current struggles.

Whether or not the Nets rally to safe the East’s ultimate play-in spot would not change the truth that, simply as when Marks took over, Brooklyn finds itself banking on its future — not its current — for salvation.

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Nets fall to Raptors in first recreation with Kevin Ollie as coach

Nets fall to Raptors in first recreation with Kevin Ollie as coach

BROOKLYN WAS 15-15 and battling for seeding within the backside of the East bracket when it hosted the Milwaukee Bucks on Dec. 27, the second evening of a back-to-back.

With a clogged schedule due partially to the crew’s impending journey to Paris to play the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn opted to take a seat 5 gamers for the complete recreation due to numerous accidents, and three extra — Mikal Bridges, Cam Thomas and Royce O’Neale — for the ultimate three quarters.

After the sport, Bridges expressed his displeasure with the choice, whereas Vaughn pushed again on the concept that the Nets had handled the sport like an exhibition.

“I’ve an excessive amount of respect for the dudes who go well with up and put their physique on the road, and the competitors degree, to even point out the phrase [exhibition],” Vaughn informed reporters after the 22-point defeat. The Nets had been fined $100,000 for violating the league’s new participant participation coverage.

For Brooklyn, issues have been ugly ever since. The Nets are 6-18 since that loss, a slide that in the end led to Vaughn’s firing Monday.

Solely the Washington Wizards have a worse report since Dec. 27 than the Nets, who’ve been twenty fifth in offensive effectivity and twenty second in defensive effectivity over that stretch — one among solely 5 groups to rank within the backside 10 at each ends, in keeping with ESPN Stats & Data.

Brooklyn adopted up that recreation in opposition to Milwaukee by shedding 4 extra in a row. And bookending their journey to Paris, the Nets blew double-digit results in lose in extra time at dwelling in opposition to the Miami Warmth and Portland Path Blazers.

At dwelling in opposition to the crosstown rival New York Knicks on Jan. 23, Brooklyn let a double-digit lead within the second half slip away. The loss was made worse by Knicks followers turning the world right into a de facto Madison Sq. Backyard.

“You could possibly hear the gang,” Bridges stated after the sport. “It felt like a frigging away recreation after they made their run.” Bridges later went on the podcast of his former Villanova teammates, Knicks guards Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, they usually mentioned how loud the Knicks followers had been that evening.

The purpose of no return for Vaughn, nevertheless, grew to become the 50-point loss in opposition to the Celtics to wrap up the pre-All-Star break schedule, after which Bridges spoke at size concerning the crew’s stretch of offensive struggles.

“We obtained to know what we’re doing,” Bridges informed reporters in Boston. “We obtained to come back as a crew, as coaches and determine a recreation plan. It may well’t be the identical with everyone.”

That problem now falls to Ollie. However the bigger problem continues to fall on Marks, who can have one other probability to construct a title contender in Brooklyn.

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Nets GM: Gamers’ effort degree performed function in Jacque Vaughn’s firing

Nets common supervisor Sean Marks explains among the components that led to the group transferring on from coach Jacque Vaughn.

MARKS SPENT HIS first two-plus seasons in Brooklyn positioning the franchise to go star chasing within the 2019 offseason, build up sufficient cap area to pair Durant with Irving. Now, within the wake of buying and selling each stars final February, Marks is in the midst of attempting to copy that sort of pursuit.

The Nets have solely Bridges, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith signed past the 2024-25 season, probably giving the franchise as much as $70 million in wage cap area to chase free brokers — a summer time 2025 class that would embody stars Donovan Mitchell, Brandon Ingram, Rudy Gobert, Lauri Markkanen and Jimmy Butler.

The Nets additionally nonetheless have Bridges, an All-Star-caliber wing with a contract ($23.3 million subsequent season and $24.9 million in 2025-26) that is universally considered by opposing scouts and executives as probably the greatest within the league.

Brooklyn has resisted overtures to commerce him, league sources informed ESPN, and the franchise views him as foundational participant transferring ahead, each for his play and for his potential to function a recruiter in free company. Bridges, for his half, made it clear he has no real interest in looking for a commerce.

“100%,” Bridges stated Tuesday, when requested how assured he’s within the route of the franchise. “Issues ain’t going good proper now, and that is life. … I do know lots of people may take into consideration completely different conditions and groups, and clearly I obtained my boys over there in New York and stuff, so clearly everyone goes with that.

“However I used to be by no means the kind of man to [want to leave when] issues get robust and it is time to cry out and get out.”

For all the thrill generated the previous few seasons in Brooklyn — partially by the Durant-Irving-Harden failed superteam — it hasn’t in the end led to a lot profitable.

Of their first three years in Brooklyn, the Nets received a single playoff sequence and a complete of 10 playoff video games. Since Marks took over midway by means of the franchise’s fourth season in Brooklyn, its postseason win tally has been one sequence and a complete of eight playoff video games.

However after years of reshuffling, each on the courtroom and on the sidelines, Marks — who stated his cellphone was “ringing for 48 hours” with coaches wanting to come back to Brooklyn after Vaughn’s firing — is assured the Nets have the gamers to climb again to contender standing.

“We have proven the flexibility to place this franchise on the high of the map,” Marks stated, “and that is the plan to do it once more.”