NETS INSIDER

  Kevin Durant played 129 regular season games with the Brooklyn Nets.  When the going got tough, the weak got going. Durant initially requested a trade during the summer of 2022 only to rescind that request and watch his compadre Kyrie Irving leave ahead of the 2023 trade deadline. Kevin Durant said he couldn’t have returned sooner from his left calf strain after seven games out, and was “grateful” for the Suns’ 5-day break to help him recover. Durant later added “I’m a Net for life” when asked about facing his ex-team Nets in second of B2B on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/3FmGWbGjdC — DANA (@iam_DanaScott) November 27, 2024 When Durant had an opportunity to follow Irving and James Harden before him out the door from Brooklyn, he didn't bat an eye.  Durant's right-hand man, Rich Kleinman, was as instrumental as any party in revisiting an the earlier trade request and bringing the said trade to the finish line between Brooklyn and Phoenix.  Durant, Irving...

 The Brooklyn Nets have a great coach in Jordi Fernandez. They had a terrific coach from 2016 to 2019 in Kenny Atkinson.  Due to a mass influx of superstars, including Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, they parted ways with their head coach back in 2019 to acquiesce to the stars' demands.  Both of those stars, along with James Harden, left the Nets at the altar and it's clear five years after the Nets made a coaching change, that it was the wrong decision. Jacque Vaughn took over for Atkinson at the end of 2019 and through the NBA bubble season during COVID-19. Then, Sean Marks had the bright idea of hiring his former teammate with no head coaching experience whatsoever in Steve Nash.  That, along with a bunch of internal dysfunction and lack of commitment from supposed leaders, led to a talented Nets roster failing to win a single Atlantic Division crown, Eastern Conference crown or NBA title.  Now, the Nets are in an early similar position to where they were with...

  The Brooklyn Nets had their title hopes dashed when Kevin Durant's toe touched the 3-point line on a potential game winning basket in the 2021 NBA playoffs. That big three squad fell apart and the Nets championship chances went out the window in a flash. So while an NBA playoff loss at a pivotal moment by millimeters can't stack up to a NFL regular season heartbreaker, the similarities are still uncanny. Watching Isaiah Likely's toe touch the line brought back so many painful memories! #nets #NFLKickoff #ravens #chiefs — Nets Insider (@NetsHistory) September 6, 2024   In a rematch of last year's AFC Championship Game, the Ravens went to Arrowhead aiming to avenge the loss on their own turf in January to the Chiefs.  Trailing 27-20, Lamar Jackson danced in the pocket as the final seconds slipped away and miraculously found an open Isaiah Likely for an apparent touchdown. Really @BleacherReport ! https://t.co/P8Eqx7Rn1u — Nets Insider (@N...

  If Nets fans haven't turned the page from Kevin Durant's unceremonious exit from Brooklyn, they will be forced to now.  Shake Milton came over to the Nets from the Knicks in the Mikal Bridges mega blockbuster this offseason. The shooting guard will take Durant's number 7.   This is the first time since Durant's departure that a Nets player will wear that number.  Clearly Milton won't fill the void left behind from Durant, but seeing another player wear that number might help the healing process in Brooklyn. 

 Kevin Durant and Dennis Schröder have been trading barbs on X/Twitter since Team USA captured the Gold Medal in France.  Durant hinted that U.S. born NBA players exude both skill and entertainment on the court to take a shot at Schröder intimating that NBA basketball is just entertainment and European basketball is more team oriented.  Now, the Brooklyn Nets social team is promoting its current point guard but is it taking a subtle shot at its former franchise cornerstone?  A man and his beanie pic.twitter.com/MCH9GfxWNG — Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) August 22, 2024  Now at first glance the tweet may seem innocent enough, but if you read between the lines, the troll job perhaps becomes a bit more obvious. Durant's signature style featured a beanie hat that he wore on the streets, during pre and post game interviews, practices and I'm sure if the NBA allowed he'd wear it in games, too! So with Schröder and Durant embroiled in a public feud, it seems curious ...

 There's no love lost between Brooklyn Nets fans and Kevin Durant. Now that the organization's current point guard, Dennis Schröder is taking aim at the former Nets superstar, it's must watch drama.   Schröder stated that European teams play higher IQ basketball while the NBA is entertainment. After Team USA won the gold following a scare versus Serbia in the semifinals as well as France in the finals, Durant took to Twitter to fire back at Schröder. ENTERTAINMENT & IQ pic.twitter.com/2e9dopdrJi — Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 11, 2024 In response, Schröder alluded to Durant's thin skin and taking things the wrong way.    Dennis Schroeder says Kevin Durant is ‘weak as a person’ 😳 "They won, and Kevin Durant tweets, 'High IQ and entertainment.' For me, that's just being weak. You're that type of a star, and you have to say something to a person like me who not even meant it to be negative. It was… pic.twitter.com/HTJrMKdLng — NBACentral (@...

  The Brooklyn Nets don't have a dog in the fight.  They snapped a playoff streak of four consecutive seasons this year.  That doesn't mean that Nets fans don't have a rooting interest.  It looks like Brooklyn fans will have to root for the lesser of two evils. If things continue down this path in the Conference Finals, the nightmare matchup of Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks against the Boston Celtics will be a reality.  You couldn't cherry pick two teams that Nets fans would want to see in the finals less. Perhaps Kevin Durant with the Phoenix Suns or James Harden with the Los Angeles Clippers would be the only exceptions.  So the question becomes if a Boston- Dallas final is in the offing, who should Nets fans root for. Irving recruited superstar talent to Brooklyn, only to burn down the house a few seasons later. The Celtics used the unprotected picks the Nets sent them in the Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry trade to draft Jaylen Brown ...

  Injuries stink. They're also part of the game. The New York Knicks have tried to grind and battle their way through a whole host of injuries.  Between Julius Randle announcing before the playoffs he was lost for the year,  Bojan Bogdanović shutting it down after the first round series win over Philly, Mitchell Robinson going on the shelf after Game 1 against the Pacers, and  OG Anunoby's hamstring injury in Game 2 of the semi-finals series, it's been almost too much to take for Knicks fans.  Now, the team's emotional leader, Josh Hart, suffered a strained abdominal muscle on his left side. Hart tried to exit and re-enter two separate times during Friday night's Game 6, but he was unable to continue.  His status for Game 7 is uncertain. Even if Hart gives it a go, he'll likely be compromised and not the same hustle player fans have seen this entire tenure as a Knick.  So now the Knicks are staring at a Game 7 at home leaning heavily on their leader, J...

  The New York Knicks defeated the Indiana Pacers 121-91 to take a 3-2 edge in the Eastern Conference semi-finals on Tuesday night.  The series will turn back to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana for Game 6 with the Knicks looking to close it out.  The Knicks have not been to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1999.  In that lockout shortened 50 game regular season, the Knicks advanced as the number 8th seed all the way to the NBA finals.   They eventually fell in five games to the San Antonio Spurs.  That feels like a lifetime ago, but the Nets best chance at a championship feels like yesterday.  Even with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets never even reached an Eastern Conference Finals.  In fact, the last time the Nets were in the Eastern Conference Finals was in 2003 when they were making their second of consecutive runs to the NBA Finals. Not since the team relocated to Brooklyn to start the 2012-13 season hav...

  Kevin Durant is not a leader. Plain and simple: when things get tough, there's zero accountability from him.  That's why when he formed a big three in Brooklyn alongside Kyrie Irving and James Harden, things fell apart. Both Irving and Harden accept zero responsibility when things go sideways.  It's either changing area codes or changing coaches, not looking in the mirror for these mercurial stars.  It makes sense why Durant would want to play with two players with similar characteristics to his own. Devin Booker and Bradley Beal fit that mold as well.  Now in his second not even full season in Phoenix, the Suns just hired their third coach,  championship winning one at that, and dismissed him after only one season. Monty Williams was fired after a very successful run with the Suns including an NBA finals appearance in 2021. They are now rumblings that Durant has not exactly ingratiated himself to teammates in Phoenix. Stephen A. Smith: "Here's wher...

 The Brooklyn Nets are a big market team and were a free agent and trade destination going back only a couple of seasons. Sean Marks opened up the checkbook to sign both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to max deals and he emptied the draft cupboard to acquire James Harden.  Marks, at the request of both of his stars, fired multiple coaches, eating dead salary in all instances.  Joe Tsai and the Nets hiked season ticket prices by an average of $144 per ticket in the 2022 season, even after trading away James Harden.  Reportedly, 30 percent of season ticket holders walked away the following season. Then, both Irving and Durant skipped town.  Barclays Center attendance figures have been rock solid, but one look around the arena and it's clear it's filled with more tourists, casual NBA fans and opposing fans, than Nets fans. This was the same criticism the Nets faced when playing at the Meadowlands without any mass transit options and outside of New York City. The Bro...

  When you think about the most uncoachable players in the NBA, there are a few names that come to mind. These players specifically have a penchant for getting coaches fired.  Lebron James and Kyrie Irving are among the first to be considered as difficult to manage and easy to place the blame on others.  But there is in fact one player that actually takes the cake when it comes to uncoachability. Surprising or not, that man is Kevin Durant.  Since arriving in Brooklyn in 2019, Durant briefly played for Kenny Atkinson before he was ousted out of Brooklyn and the Nets hired Steve Nash. Durant quickly grew tired of Nash and issued the Nets an ultimatum during his first trade request: 'fire Nash and Sean Marks or trade me'.  Durant rescinded his first trade request, and Nash was only back for the first handful of games to start the 2022 season before Brooklyn pulled the plug and anointed Jacque Vaughn as the new full-time head coach with an extension.  Then Dur...

The writing was on the wall for Kyrie Irving heading up to the 2022 trade deadline. The Brooklyn Nets had grown tired of his act and there was a strained relationship between Irving, the front office and ownership.  Meanwhile, in Dallas, a potential Jalen Brunson extension fell through the cracks and it became imminent that the Maverick point guard was going to hit free agency in the summer.  As the Nets had an untenable situation with Irving and Mark Cuban dealing with a strong likelihood of losing his starting point guard, swapping Irving for Brunson would have made the most sense for both teams at the 2022 deadline deal  Brunson has evolved into a superstar player with the Knicks, but pairing him with Kevin Durant would have formed a terrific Duo in Brooklyn.  Ironically, the Nets would trade Irving to Dallas and pair him with Luka Doncic in 2023 In exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and picks.  Had Sean Marks pulled the plug on Irving earlie...

  Kevin Durant always loved the rims at Barclays Center and he barely needed them on Wednesday as he dropped 33 to go along with eight assists and five rebounds. The Nets, led by Cam Thomas with 25 and Mikal Bridges with 21 for the game, hung tough in the first half, trailing by just three points. Once the third quarter hit, Phoenix blew the doors off Brooklyn with a 42-26 frame, including a stretch where the Suns went 14 of 16 from the field. The Nets allowed the Suns to shoot 62 percent for th e game and despite a late charge to cut the lead to just ten points inside 5 minutes remaining, the Nets couldn't get any closer. Prior to the game, the Nets showed a tribute video to Durant, one that was rumored, and Durant indicated on X that he neither wanted nor deserved due to his short stint with the team. The Nets are sinking into oblivion while the Suns seem to be finding their footing. Anything short of a Phoenix championship will be an utter failure during Durant's contract, w...

  Photo by Doug Bearak All it took was 18 minutes for Ben Simmons to wind up back on the injury report. According to the latest update released by the Brooklyn Nets, Ben Simmons has been downgraded from probable to questionable with a left knee contusion. The Nets face Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns at Barclays Center on Wednesday night.  Brooklyn has sorely missed Simmons' play making ability, but his inability to stay healthy makes him an unreliable option for the team this season and moving forward.  If Simmons is unable to go, that will drastically reduce the Nets chances of pulling the upset against friend turned foe Durant. While the team is not characterizing Simmons injury as anything to do with his nerve impingement, the franchise has toyed with and played around with injury updates surrounding Simmons.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out and whether this injury is totally unrelated or stems from his chronic back issues that he has had the p...

 Playing in his first game since November 6th against Milwaukee, Ben Simmons looked even better than Nets fans could have imagined. In 18 minutes of play, Simmons registered 10 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds, while going a perfect 5-for-5 from the field.  Brooklyn steamrolled Utah 147-114 behind Mikal Bridges' 33, while Cam Thomas added 25. It will be fascinating to see how Brooklyn handles Simmons' minutes with a game Wednesday against Kevin Durant and Phoenix. Simmons' nerve impingement has been characterized as a potentially chronic issue that could reoccur anytime. It's unclear whether extra rest days and a lighter workload will minimize the risk of reaggravating the condition or have no impact.  That part of the equation will have to be a wait and see experiment. It's something to monitor, but Nets fans at least can be somewhat encouraged by Simmons impact on the floor in his limited playing time on Monday. 

There aren't many smiles right now in Nets World, but the outsiders are laughing at Brooklyn's futility. A record of 4-17 over the last 21 games is not just bad, it's downright embarrassing.  Not since the 0-18 start to the 2009-10 season where the franchise was playing the string out in New Jersey have things looked this bad.  Yes, there was a rebuild under Kenny Atkinson in Brooklyn, not one but two failed Big Three star experiments. But at those three junctures the Nets defined a direction, no matter how misguided it was.  All-in for three aging stars, all-in for three prime stars with supersized egos and break it all down to reset the organization and the culture.  Brooklyn now find itself in NBA purgatory. With Houston owning the Nets picks and swaps through the 2027 NBA Draft, there is no incentive for the Nets to tank.  If you look up and down the roster, it's hard to fathom how this team could be a whopping ten games under .500 just after the midway poin...

Jacque Vaughn may have signed a multi-year extension less than a year ago on February 21, 2023, but early returns for his tenure as head coach have been less than promising.  Yes, Vaughn was head man when the Nets won 12 straight games last season , including an 18 -2 stretch with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving leading the way. However, everything went south from that point on with Vaughn.  The Nets stumbled into the sixth seed in the conference in the aftermath of the Irving and Durant trades.  Brooklyn was swept with relative ease by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs.   Vaughn also took over as the interim Nets head coach back in 2020, during the NBA bubble season with the team being swept out of the first round by the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors.  Vaughn has an 0-8 playoff record and has been reluctant to play young budding star Cam Thomas, whose offensive prowess is unmatched, but his defense needs some improve...

  The Brooklyn Nets got the revenge that many fans are hoping for on Wednesday night against Kevin Durant and his new team the Phoenix Suns.  Much Durant's ime in Brooklyn, Phoenix has been unable to stay healthy with Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal  finally all seeing the court together.  Spencer Dinwiddie was clutched down the stretch as he scored eight fourth quarter points and Cam. Thomas connected on two free throws to seal a 4-point win at Footprint Center.  Thomas led the way for Brooklyn with 24, while Mikal Bridges chipped in 21 and Dinwiddie 16. Booker dropped in 34 points and Durant 27, but Durant committed a bone-headed foul on Cam Johnson with just 3 seconds remaining on the shot clock where a stop would have given the Suns the ball down only two points with less than 10 seconds remaining. Durant was adamant about asking out of Brooklyn at last year's trade deadline and with the Nets on the rise he can't ask his way back in now. 

 Kevin Durant had a chance to go down as a Nets legend and rewrite the history books by bringing the franchise its first NBA title. Instead, Durant's tenure with the club became just another disappointing chapter in the history of the Nets. Had Durant shown more leadership when the locker room was falling apart, had his shoe been one size smaller or had he stuck it out when things were getting tough, the outcome may have been different. Now, the Nets are retooling in short order and building a roster ripe with you talent and led by emerging stars in Cam Thomas and Mikal Bridges. Both sides are better off for the divorce. Durant is in Phoenix competing for a title he most likely won't win. He's had his own problems getting his new big three of Devin Booker and Bradley Beal healthy. They'll make their debut as a complete trio on Wednesday against Brooklyn. As Nets fans officially move on from the Durant era, a win against the friend turned nemesis would go a long way for ...