During their three seasons in Brooklyn, the Nets have had four different head coaches, three playoff appearances and just one series win. Heading into the 2014-15 campaign, with their second new coach in as many years, the Nets had to do an in-season system rebuild yet again, resulting in another slow start and late postseason push.
Also, for the third consecutive season at the Barclays Center, the Nets failed to live up to the lofty expectations heaped on them by their gregarious owner and the contender-hungry fan base that wanted the bill of goods it was promised during the move from New Jersey to be fulfilled. Three seasons, three seasons of underachieving.
But, with Lionel Hollins entering the fold and Paul Pierce in Washington, Shaun Livingston in Oakland and Andray Blatche overseas, there was question to doubt this version of the Nets, which ended up going 38-44 and sneaking into the playoffs over the Pacers due to a tiebreaker. Sure, Brook Lopez was healthy but another year on Joe Johnson and Deron Williams along with an over-the-hill Kevin Garnett represented enough warning signs to be concerned.
I’m not sure many people expected Brooklyn to fail to garner even a winning record in the brutally weak Eastern Conference, not that the hints weren’t there. With this team, I’ve realized, there has been significant revisionist history in terms of how good people though it would be before the season started. I don’t recall anyone picking the Nets to win the Atlantic Division (sidenote: the Raptors may be in a bigger quagmire than the Nets right now) or even finishing in the top half of the conference.
So, with considering the should-have-been tempered expectations based off the last two seasons and offseason player movement, finishing No. 8 in the conference isn’t a complete shock. Obviously, the Celtics and Bucks were surprises, but even they fared worse in their first round matchups than Brooklyn did in taking two games from the Hawks. Does it seem like that blatant of an underperformance anymore?
Well that’s more complicated than a simple yes or no answer, however, it’s a gross difference from the top-of-the-East ceiling people attribute to the team when viewing it with perfect hindsight. Prior to the last two seasons, many pundits thought the Nets could be that type of team, but certainly not before this one.
The Nets, to put it bluntly, had little chance of winning more than a single series this season, and they ended up not even doing that. There’s no question they have loads of talent, both with overpaid veterans and intriguing young pieces, but based on the evidence and past results, falling in the second round–like last year–was as good as they were going to do.
This means the franchise faces a lot of uncertainty this summer and who will be back–Billy King, Johnson, Williams, Brook Lopez, Thad Young, Mirza Teletovic, etc–is not known at the moment. Even Joe said that he doubts the Nets will look the same when the 2015-16 campaign kicks off in October.
Joe Johnson on Nets future: ‘I don’t see us coming back as the same team’ http://t.co/u8bPJdF30z
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) May 2, 2015
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So that almost assures the Nets will make a flurry of moves for the fourth consecutive offseason, resulting in their fourth radically different-looking team in as many years as the Barclays Center has hosted a pro basketball team. Of course, that doesn’t bode well for next season’s prospects but it also reflects on how thoroughly inflated this season’s expectations were. A double whammy of sadness.
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