The Brooklyn Nets have season a disastrous season come to an end with a humiliating 4-0 loss to the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs. Blame is going to fall on every aspect of the franchise, with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving already being attacked for their muted play on the court throughout the series.
GM Sean Marks has also caught flak for an incomplete roster that didn’t have the tools to compete with Boston despite their top-end talent. The person who was responsible for making the roster work on the court was Steve Nash, with him probably being the first domino to fall in Brooklyn.
Kendrick Perkins believes he should be, going in on Nash’s inability to coach this team to even win one game in the series. This came after Irving spoke about being a part of the management future of the team and omitted Nash’s name.
“[Steve Nash] is not the right person for this job! You need someone in that seat that those players — especially Kyrie Irving because he’s not going anywhere — is going to respect and listen to, and Steve Nash is not that guy.”
—@KendrickPerkins 😳 pic.twitter.com/HiMuhuLrO1
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 26, 2022
“Kyrie Irving mentioned everybody’s name but Steve Nash. You have to be on one accord right? When you see the way the Brooklyn Nets play, they have 0 respect for Steve Nash. To me, Steve Nash is a great individual and a great person, but at the end of the day, this is a business. He is not the right person for the job. You need someone in that seat that those players, especially Kyrie Irving, is going to respect and listen to. Steve Nash is not that guy. It’s one thing for the Brooklyn Nets if they would’ve lost the series to the Boston Celtics and put up a fight. They got swept.”
Even if Nash is to be replaced, the coaching market doesn’t necessarily have a depth of coaches with experience to manage the Nets. The most obvious choice would be Mike D’Antoni, who was a part of the coaching staff in 2020-21. Outside that, the same names the Lakers have been linked to can pop up like Quin Snyder, Mark Jackson, and others.
Hopefully, Brooklyn makes a positive move and can reform the team into a contending outfit for next season. Otherwise, the KD and Kyrie experiment will go down as one of the biggest failures in NBA history.