Marks: ‘Bright pathway’ ahead for Nets

GM believes Brooklyn basketball can go after it 'every year'

April 25, 2023 John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn couldn't point his team past the Sixers, but there is hope for a brighter future in Brooklyn. AP Photo by Frank Franklin II

Share this:

For the second consecutive season, the Brooklyn Nets didn’t win a single game in an NBA playoff series.

But unlike their hasty 2022 exit at the hands of the Boston Celtics, the Nets believe better days are ahead after losing four in a row to the Philadelphia 76ers, including Saturday’s season-ending 96-88 defeat in front of a sellout crowd of 18,037 disappointed fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

“I told them they should feel extremely proud when they walk around the borough of Brooklyn,” head coach Jacque Vaughn said after his Nets fell to 0-8 against the Sixers this season and dropped their 10th straight playoff game overall.

“The way that we competed, we didn’t make excuses this year,” he added. “We figured out how to stay together. That locker room was together even until the end of the game.”

No doubt the Nets did their best to form a common bond after the jettisoning of Kevin Durant to Phoenix and Kyrie Irving to Dallas back in February.

Brooklyn finished sixth overall in the Eastern Conference, one spot ahead of last year, and found a way to hold off Miami down the stretch despite having just over two months to get to know one another after a massive reshaping of its roster.

But Philadelphia’s experience showed in crunch time of all four contests, and the Nets were the first team sent home for the second straight campaign.

Despite the lack of progress in pursuit of the franchise’s first-ever NBA title, Marks indicated that better days are coming.

“We have a young group here that is wanting to compete, so we’re going to be going after it every year,” he said before adding that the Nets have a “bright pathway” to a strong future.

Last summer, Brooklyn denied Irving a long-term deal, virtually assuring he’d not be back next season, and Durant demanded to be traded before owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks stuck to their guns and waited until the February deadline to swap out both superstars.

In return, the Nets, who got picks for James Harden in February 2022, received plenty of hope for the future and options to play with come the NBA Draft at Barclays in June.

Brooklyn has the third-most first-round picks in the league, and can deal them or keep them going forward.

Marks also will have to make a decision regarding restricted free agent Cam Johnson, who came here from the Suns along with top scorer Mikal Bridges in the Durant deal.

“I think it’s part of the business and I think situations like we were put in this year prepare us for anything that can come up this summer, no matter what it is,” said Johnson.

Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks has a bevy of first-round picks to make or deal in rebuilding the Nets. AP Photo by Mary Altaffer

Spencer Dinwiddie, who began his second stint as a Net in February after arriving here in the Irving trade, sees hope on a Brooklyn roster that can continue to bloom as well as add new pieces, via the draft or more trades this summer.

“There’s not many teams, many organizations I think have ever blown up a superstar-studded group that possibly was in championship contention in one year and have the possibility of championship contention again the very next season,” Dinwiddie noted Sunday.

“You do have a bevy of draft picks and probably several guys that can net you more draft picks. So, I mean, really, they can go either route. And I mean, shoot they could also choose to stand pat and roll the dice.”

After struggling for most of the series, Nic Claxton had 19 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots in Game 4, which ended with the Sixers completing the sweep despite the absence of MVP candidate Joel Embiid.

Claxton admitted that the Nets’ inexperience in the postseason as a unit played a part in their abrupt departure.

“Especially going into a playoff series, I mean teams have been together, they’ve been in the trenches together for maybe five-plus years, and then you throw in a whole new team,” he said.

“But, not making no excuses, just it would be nice going forward if we could maybe just start to build something here.”

The building of the first major pro sports championship in Brooklyn since 1955 may have begun with the exits of Durant and Irving, but it was that dynamic duo that originally sparked hope of a title back in 2019.

Now, Marks, Tsai and Vaughn must find a way to build it back up to a championship expectation here on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.

But first, Vaughn wanted to express how grateful he was to the players that did remain and fought to get this team back into the playoffs.

Even if they wound up exiting the postseason in the exact same fashion.

“Gives me a last chance to say thank you to the group. Not only the players, but everyone that supports us throughout the course of the year,” he said during the team’s exit interviews.

“So for me, that was the first bit of it is saying thank you to all those who participated in some form or fashion and to encourage the group that, how we were able to stay together, find ways to get it done, really limit our use of excuses.”

Spencer Dinwiddie, Cam Johnson and Mikal Bridges gave it their all, but came up short in four straight games vs. Philadelphia. AP Photo by Jason DeCrow

There will be none of those come opening tip-off for next season. Vaughn also pointed that out to his squad as they put 2022-23 behind them.

“The last piece was to challenge the group also,” he revealed. “Getting a chance to define our culture, have a clarity of our culture going forward, and challenge themselves to make themselves better when they come back.”