The Brooklyn Nets have two of the most gifted offensive players this game has ever seen in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. When they're both on their game, the Nets are virtually unstoppable, and this is exactly what Brooklyn is hoping for now that the playoffs are just around the corner.
For his part, however, Steve Nash is well aware of the pitfalls of being overly reliant on his two superstars on offense. The second-year Brooklyn coach admitted that his team has been leaning heavily on both Durant and Irving but in truth, this isn't what their philosophy is all about:
“Yeah, I think we’re an isolation-heavy team because [Kevin and Kyrie are] so gifted, but that’s not the plan,” Nash said on Friday, via Kristian Winfield of the new York Daily News. “The plan is to get into as many actions as possible, and hopefully it takes one and we’re in the paint, and we get a good look.”
This is a good problem to have for Nash and the Nets. It's not very often that either Durant or Irving has an off night. It's even rarer to see both stars struggling in the same game. On such occasions, however, Nash has a handful of other players on the roster who can pick up the slack on the offensive end. The question is, whether or not this team has enough firepower outside of their two superstars.
Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka believes that he has the Nets all figured out. After all, he served as an assistant under Nash in Brooklyn last season. In an interview back in March, Udoka spilled the beans on Steve Nash's gameplan:
“I know their game,” Udoka said. “It’s not about their sets, offensively. It’s about who they are. They’re not running anything complicated. It’s get them the ball and let them do what they do.”
Again, this is an issue that you are bound to face when you have two all-time greats on your team. It's not necessarily a problem, but it could potentially lead to some chinks in their armor. This is exactly what Udoka and the rest of the NBA are banking on as they try and find ways to take down the mighty Nets.
For coach Nash, however, it is clear that he takes no issue with letting Durant and/or Irving run the offense extensively:
“We want to continue to bring players in the actions so that we give the defense decisions to make, we ask questions of the defense, we see if they make a mistake or we create a slight advantage instead of just all watching them,” Nash said. “But when (Durand and Irving) move it back and forth, that is ball movement anyways. It’s not like just because they only passed it to each other, that possession is bad. Sometimes that’s all it takes to shift the defense and now we’ve created a small advantage.”
With the Nets now closing in on the playoffs, Steve Nash believes that his team is clicking at just the right time. They're not there yet, but the Nets are close:
“It’s a work in progress,” Nash said. “This group’s not played too many games together, so trying to get deeper into our philosophy takes time, but I think the second half in New York (on Wednesday) was a glimpse of some of the positivity and productivity of that mindset versus the first half where it was the opposite.”
Follow Us
Subscribe