The Brooklyn Nets were blown out in both of their preseason games to open the 2022-23 season. While the games are exhibitions, Kyrie Irving said Brooklyn is not taking the preseason for granted, and the seven-time All-Star emphasized one critical area that the team needs to improve.
“I think the low-hanging fruit that we could honestly all agree on is sometimes, some possessions, we’re not playing hard enough,” Irving said Saturday. “And you saw it against Miami the other night. They were really physical, and we don't want that to be our stigma or M.O. in the league. Everybody knows each other, but the most physical teams usually win ballgames, especially down the stretch. So we’ve got to be tougher.”
Brooklyn struggled in a 109-80 loss to the Heat on Thursday night. Nets head coach Steve Nash said postgame that his team lost the physical battle, an area they’ll need to take greater pride in to be successful in the 2022-23 season.
“I thought just the mentality Miami brought, as we know they play physical, they’re gonna get into you, and we allowed them to win that battle,” Nash said postgame. “All those little battles, space, time, poise, screening, not screening, getting cut, no vision, not boxing out, not getting loose balls, you know you can go down the list, but really it starts with the mentality. They showed it and we gotta try to match that going forward.”
Irving said he and his teammates have heard the narratives surrounding their team over the last few years. This season, the fourth-year Net said Brooklyn wants to erase the negative discussion.
“We want to erase everything that was said about our team the last few years in terms of our weaknesses,” he said. “We want to turn them into our strengths, and it starts with developing good habits and going out in a game and not just talking about it, but doing it.”
Kevin Durant spoke at Media Day, and his comments were in line with what Irving said Saturday. The former MVP identified one thing he wants for the Nets this season: respect amongst their peers.
“I feel like we don’t get any respect out there on the court, and that’s what I want for us,” Durant said. “From the GM down to the equipment manager, I want that respect, and I think you do that by how you work every single day, and we skipped some steps in how we worked throughout that year last year because of the circumstances.”
Markieff Morris joined Brooklyn this offseason in hopes of adding a tough, veteran presence to the locker room. Given Morris' analysis of last year’s Nets team, it is easy to see where Durant was coming from.
“They were soft. Just point-blank period,” Morris said early in camp. “When we played up against them, they were soft. Just go right up in their chest, and that’s what we did.”
Developing an identity will be an uphill battle for Brooklyn following a dysfunctional offseason. With several new faces entering the mix, Nash said the team's toughness will be built through everyday habits.
“It’s always been a topic, we talk about it every day,” Nash said. “We know we don’t have the most physical team, but its got to be a part of the way we play, and so that’s something that can develop over time, it’s not a switch.
“We need to have the mental toughness to stay physical, the mental toughness to continue to build habits. That’s what it comes down to, if you want to have disciple you have to build it every day.”
With Ben Simmons, Royce O’Neale, T.J. Warren, Morris and more joining Durant and Irving, Brooklyn is a new team in 2022-23. Irving and Nash said building team chemistry is a process that won’t happen overnight. Shedding the soft reputation of years past appears to be an emphasis in an all-in season for the Nets.
However, words are of little importance regarding that topic. The only thing that will shift the team's perception is what they do on the court.
“Like Kieff said, we’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Irving said Saturday. “We’re going to mess up things, but we don’t want it to carry over to the next possession. That’s what our message has been in practice: on to the next play. Regardless of what the ref’s doing, what our opponent is doing, we want to focus on us.”
The Nets' next preseason game is Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks.
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