Courtesy of nytimes

While I wasn’t at all surprised by the announcement today that Steve Nash and the Brooklyn Nets ‘agreed to part ways’ (although multiple legitimate news sites have all reported he was ‘fired’), I am surprised that anyone could possibly think a change in coaching could cure what ails this team: It’s three star players.

I don’t think I need to report Kyrie’s most recent controversy so I’ll save everyone the time and simply say clearly the man needs help in my opinion. Until he is able to get that help, I believe it’s going to be difficult to play consistently at a high level throughout an entire NBA season. Similarly, I’ll save the Ben Simmons spiel and say simply that he is currently a shell of the NBA player he was and whatever he needs to get back on his feet and actually play on a basketball court is certainly not in Brooklyn. Then, finally, there’s the last piece of the puzzle: Kevin Durant. In my opinion he’s probably the best basketball player ever who at this time is proven to be incapable of being a team leader. I believe he can be the best player on a basketball team for sure (he was on Golden State), but there needs to be another star player capable of leadership in the locker room and clearly Brooklyn doesn’t have that in Kyrie.

Courtesy of Sportingnews

I understand all of these players are very talented, but they’re also the entire core of this team and you can’t win a championship when the core’s rotted. I don’t care who’s coaching. To drive my point home here, I’m going to explain why the two very talented coaches who have been rumored to be potential hires in Brooklyn, will not be able to bring this team through a successful playoff run this year let alone a championship.

Courtesy of SBnation

First off you have Ime, who clearly is dealing with his own personal demons and public controversy. Not only is that not going to mix well with Kyrie’s recent actions which have gained attention from the media, but Ben Simmons is someone also getting a lot of negative attention from the media and the public. It seems unlikely someone with the current baggage Ime has is going to be in the right spot to navigate these players through the season as they are dealing with these types of issues. Now, some of you are likely to think to yourselves “Well maybe they just need to be told to ‘fuck off’ like that dumb ass Celtic team last year, heh heh”, but I’d argue that type of approach is actual another very strong reason he would struggle to gel with this team. These aren’t just young guys who want to win, but don’t know how to win yet like what he had in Boston. 

Ben Simmons is clearly extremely sensitive, to put it nicely, and is prone to shutting down at perceived slights, so I really don’t see him being extremely responsive to a hard-assed coach who isn’t going to be able to stop himself from commenting on what he’s doing wrong on the court. KD has ultimately not been happy in OKC, Brooklyn, or Golden State. He reported he had wanted Brooklyn’s front office fired over the summer because he didn’t feel as if they were holding him accountable. I’d argue this was another excuse for him to be unhappy without having to take any accountability himself. On the contrary, I can’t remotely imagine KD responding at all to a very hands-on disciplinary coach like Ime – I just don’t think he’d be able to access that style of coaching at this point in his career. Sure, there’s a chance Ime and him click and he enables KD as this player-coach type who leads by example and tells everyone to shut up and listen to the coach, but I’d say you’re really gambling there if that’s your augment for a good fit. Lastly, I don’t think we even really need to go over Kyrie in terms of how he’d gel with this type of coach. I don’t even think he’s appeared as if he is available to access coaching on that type of level in order to build a meaningful relationship with his teammates for the duration of an entire season in quite some time, if he ever has. 

Courtesy of Seattle Times

While highly regarded in his first year prior to his controversial suspension, Ime does have only one year of coaching experience. You could argue that a more experienced coach like Quin Snyder might be a better fit for this role. I’d highly disagree. While challenging nonetheless, Snyder couldn’t make Gobert and Mitchell fit work ultimately and I believe this Brooklyn team has already proven to be infinitely more difficult to manage chemistry wise. Also, I well respected the coach who left Utah on his own terms, I just can’t see why he’d want to walk into this type of shit-storm after taking a step back. I think it’s more likely he wants to walk into a well managed situation where can actually coach and I’d have to argue this Nets team is the complete opposite of that. 

Simply put, if you’re rooting for the Nets and you’re celebrating Steve Nash leaving, whether he was actually fired or not (seems highly like he was), you’ve really never looked at this problem from the ground up and I think you’re in for a rude awakening when little changes as the head coach does.