Is it time for the Nets to start questioning Steve Nash?
The Brooklyn Nets pulled off two impressive wins in Los Angeles over Christmas weekend, but they haven’t won a game since. After having a break due to the team’s COVID-19 outbreak, Brooklyn’s had a hard time getting back into the swing of things … and that includes Steve Nash.
The Nets’ performance on Monday against the Grizzlies was far below abysmal. Yes, it was that bad. Brooklyn lost the game, 118-104, but in reality, the loss was worse than the 14-point differential. Thanks to the Nets’ younger players, the team was able to climb out of the hole that they had dug themselves in, but it wasn’t enough.
There’s not a singular reason why they lost as bad as they did. The defense, rebounding, turnovers, and shooting all played a role. As Kevin Durant said, there were issues on both ends of the floor.
However, part of the reason was also attributed to Nash’s decision-making as the team’s head coach. The Nets are nearly halfway through the regular season, but the lineups that Nash has out on the floor don’t always make the most sense.
Just don’t know how Steve Nash can watch his team go down 25 in the third and stick with the same 8 man rotation.
— Billy Reinhardt (@BillyReinhardt) January 4, 2022
Have to change something up. Look for a spark.
Fans question Steve Nash’s coaching abilities after Brooklyn Nets’ loss.
Have you ever heard the saying, “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”? Well, Nash seems to think that even if it is broken, it doesn’t need to be fixed.
He’s extremely reluctant to switch things up, even if nothing’s working for Brooklyn. Look no further than the loss to Memphis. The Nets entered the fourth quarter down 96-73, and Nash finally decided to sit the starters in favor of the youngsters.
Steve Nash pulled a Tom Thibodeau and put his starters on the bench to open the 4th quarter. A unit of Jevon Carter, Bruce Brown, David Duke Jr., Cam Thomas and Day'Ron Sharpe has gone on a 23-12 run to to start this period. Timeout, Grizzlies.
— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) January 4, 2022
It shouldn’t have taken that long for Nash to look beyond the team’s five starters and three of the bench players (Blake Griffin, James Johnson, and Bruce Brown). It seems like Nash completely forgot about Cam Thomas, Day’Ron Sharpe, and David Duke Jr. In fact, he forgot about Kessler Edwards altogether, because he didn’t play at all. Did these guys not prove enough while the roster was decimated with absences?
After the game, Nash said that the younger players needed more time to “ramp up.”
Steve Nash says the younger guys earned an opportunity, pointed out that they were the last to come out of quarantine and needed more time to ramp up.
— Alex Schiffer (@Alex__Schiffer) January 4, 2022
Based on the team’s performance, it seems as if it should’ve been the other way around. The eight-man rotation that Nash stuck with for the majority of the game wasn’t clicking, and the younger guys changed the course of what was going to be an even bigger blowout loss.
This isn’t the first time that Nash’s abilities have been called into question. Remember when he said that Brooklyn didn’t have a choice but to overload Durant, and then turned around the following week and said that “it doesn’t feel right” to continue to heavily rely on KD?
Nash is in his second season at the helm for the Nets, and he’s working with an incredible amount of talent. Maybe his coaching decisions have been overshadowed by Durant’s heroics this season, but on a night when KD shot 8-of-24 from the field, the spotlight was on Nash. And not in a good way.
With Kyrie Irving set to return on Wednesday in Indiana, the only logical reason why the Nets won’t win the NBA title this year is if they self-destruct. That includes Nash, too.
Will Nash be the one to hold Brooklyn back? Hopefully not, but he hasn’t given Nets fans a lot to be confident about. At the very least, he needs to be more willing to switch his rotations up, and preferably before it’s too late.
