Brooklyn Nets: Bad Basketball, Bad Morals

The Brooklyn Nets are a disaster. Both on and off the court, the star studded roster is off to a hellish start to their season. Currently sitting multiple games below .500, and shrouded in controversy. I want to take a look back at the series of events that led the organization here, and what the future holds for the franchise.

What is obviously at the forefront of the conversation regarding the Nets is the unacceptable behavior of star point guard Kyrie Irving. In recent weeks, Irving shared an anti-Semitic film on his twitter, one wrought with hateful rhetoric, including Holocaust denial, among other things. This sparked outrage throughout the league, with many people calling for some sort of accountability to be taken an Irving’s behalf. When given the opportunity to apologize and explain his actions, Irving refused, instead saying “I cannot be Anti-Semitic if I know where I come from.”. Following this quote, the Nets and owner Joe Tsai released a statement declaring Kyrie Irving “currently unfit to be associated with the Brooklyn Nets.” The quote continues saying “Kyrie will serve a suspension without pay until he satisfies a series of objective remedial measures that address the harmful impact of his conduct and the suspension period served is no less than five games.” This controversy leaves a stain on the point guard’s legacy, and will jeopardize his immediate future in the NBA.

Ben Simmons has been in a downward spiral since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2021, having passed up a wide open dunk opportunity that would have put the game well within reach for the Sixers in the final minutes. The season following, Simmons didn’t play for the Sixers, because of a combination of injury and mental health struggles. Due to feeling uncomfortable in Philadelphia, he requested that he be traded. At the same time, the drama of the Nets became too much to bear for 2018 MVP James Harden, leading him to ask to be traded before even spending one full season with the team. After giving up a haul of draft picks and players to get Harden in the first place, Nets GM Sean Marks wanted to get sizable value for Harden in return for a trade. He thought he found that in Ben Simmons at the trade deadline, dealing Harden to the Sixers. In totality, the Nets essentially gave up Jarrett Allen (an all-star last season for the Cavs), Caris LeVert(a serviceable starter for the Cavs), and first round draft picks in 21’, 22’, 23’, 24’, 25’, 26’, 27’, for Ben Simmons. So when I tell you that the person that they traded their entire future for is a guy who is averaging 5.6 points, 6 rebounds, and is only taking 5.3 shots per game through 7 games, you should understand the kind of trouble the Nets are in right now, as well as the long term. Simmons has been truly abysmal so far this season, with the 17th worst plus minus in the league of all qualified players. Even Simmon’s defense, which is the main skill he has been known for, as well as what Nets need most right now, seems to be diminishing, with the Nets having a worse defensive rating with Simmons on the floor than off. All in all, if the Nets have any serious hopes of contention, Simmons needs to do a 180 on his current performance so far this season.

After a 2-5 start to the season, the Nets fired Head Coach Steve Nash. Nash wasn’t the problem with the Brooklyn Nets, but his subpar coaching certainly wasn’t helping. The roster has glaring defensive holes, but even still, Nash’s rotations were not of an NBA coaching caliber. This has led to the Nets searching for a new coach, and a name that has been brought up by NBA insiders throughout discussions is former Celtic’s Head Coach Ime Udoka, who faced allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace this offseason, leading to the Celtics removing him as coach. Completely separate from PR, or basketball, this is a horrifying example of how sports franchises will often value winning over the safety and comfort of their female staff, as also seen with the Josh Primo incident in San Antonio. Even outside of that, this isn’t a wise decision. The last thing that the Nets locker room needs is another person who clearly can not operate in a workplace environment in a safe and proper manner. On a basketball level, which is certainly not what is most important here, Udoka’s defensive scheme would not solve the Net’s woes. The reason Udoka’s switch heavy defense flourished last season in Boston was because the Celtics had the personnel for nearly every player to guard nearly every position. This is not the case for the Nets. If his scheme was run by the Nets, the result would almost certainly be leaving smaller guards like Seth Curry, Patty Mills, or Kyrie Irving, on larger players who they simply are not capable of defending. At the moment it is unknown who will be the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, but they will have a hard time overcoming the fundamental flaws in the way the roster is constructed.

Lastly, something that made only minor headlines in the NBA community was the dissatisfaction of former first round pick Cam Thomas with his role on the Nets. Shortly after the Nash firing, the second year SG changed his Instagram bio to “#FREECT”, indicating that he wants to either get a larger role on the team, or to be traded altogether. Nicolas Claxton, Brooklyn’s starting center, supported the idea, commenting the same phrase “#FREECT” on a Brooklyn Nets Instagram post. Thomas has shown potential in Summer League and preseason to be a quality scorer, however, he hasn’t gotten much opportunity in the regular season through this point, averaging only 17 minutes per game out of 48. It certainly is not good for the team’s future that one of the only promising young players that they have is dissatisfied. This is made worse by the lack of future draft picks, and is yet another example of drama within this Brooklyn locker room.

When Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant first arrived on the Brooklyn Nets, aspirations were high. If you told someone from when this iteration of the team first formed that the Nets would be in the state they currently are, they would be shocked. Poor basketball decisions compounded with numerous off the court dramas (I didn’t even get into Kevin Durant requesting a trade this offseason) has led the Nets to be one of the worst teams in the league so far this season.