DURHAM, N.C. – It didn’t take the Nets losing in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs to an injury-ravaged Bulls team for general manager Billy King to realize that something was missing from his team.
“You saw it,” King said. “There were certain games where things just happened that you can’t allow to happen.
“At some point, you’ve got to knock a guy on his ass if they’re doing things. You’ve got to take a hard foul and let them know you just can’t do that, and we didn’t do it. … [You saw it] in certain games of the playoffs, in certain games of the regular season.
“It’s just basketball, but if a guy has got a layup, you’ve got to put him on his ass so they don’t do it.”
One of the themes of the first few days of this new season is the Nets hoping to remove the “soft” label that dogged them last season. That was never more apparent than in their playoff loss to the Bulls, who beat a nearly entirely healthy Nets squad despite missing Derrick Rose for the entire series, Luol Deng at the end of it and with Joakim Noah hobbled throughout.
Among the people repeating that chorus has been Deron Williams, who said during his media day session Monday, “If you look at Game 7, we kind of were soft … that’s the only way to put it.”
When told of King’s criticism Wednesday, Williams didn’t argue.
“There was a lot of easy layups [last season],” Williams said. “I think we were first in transition points allowed last year. So a lot of that is letting guys get easy baskets, and that can’t happen.
“So, hopefully, as a group, we can have that mentality where we’re not going to let that happen. We don’t want to hurt anybody, but you don’t want to give a guy a free layup.”
One reason the Nets are talking a different game about their level of toughness is the presence of Kevin Garnett. Long considered one of the league’s most dominant personalities, it hasn’t taken long for the future Hall of Famer to make an impact.
When asked about his style of play Wednesday, Garnett gave a typically colorful answer.
“I don’t know … I just play hard, man,” Garnett said. “I just play hard. I don’t take any [expletive], like anybody.
“I play with my heart on my sleeve. I care about the game and I never disrespect the game or myself or my family. If you want to call that tough, I guess that’s tough.”