The Nets didn’t sign superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in free agency last summer to simply compete in the playoffs, and their new head coach is making that quite clear.
Brooklyn is attempting to win a title, and soon, with both Durant and Irving in their prime. Former head coach Kenny Atkinson was great in establishing a culture and developing their young players, but he didn’t necessarily fit with KD and Kyrie, given their personalities.
Steve Nash worked well with Durant as a consultant for the Warriors, and that’s part of why the Nets signed him to coach the team going forward. And even though he’s never been a head coach in the league, he’s making it clear that the Nets are planning to make a run at a title.
“We’re playing for a championship,” Nash said in a town hall, as transcribed by ESPN.com. “I don’t want to say that anything less than a championship is not a success because you never know what happens in life, you never know the way the ball bounces. Fortune is a big part of winning an NBA championship. But we are playing for a championship and we’re going to build accordingly. We’re going to frame everything we do in the lens of, ‘Is this a championship characteristic?’ or ‘Is this worth championship quality?’”
Being in the Eastern Conference sure helps their road to the NBA Finals, but the Nets haven’t been a title contender in quite some time, so it will be interesting to see if the team can flip the switch — and soon.
