It all looked so easy. The Nets spent a lot of money in the offseason, moved into a brand new building and borough and remade a three-decade-plus identity in a few months. After an 11-4 start to the season, it appeared the transformation was complete.
But Avery Johnson wasn’t fooled. The Nets could be good, maybe even great, but the coach knew it wouldn’t be that simple. Three straight losses, and eight in the past 10 games, have confirmed that.
“We got off to a good start, [but] there’s no sense of entitlement,” Johnson said. “We’re not a franchise that has won 10, 15 championships. It’s going to take work. I’ve been telling the guys all along, when you’re going through a situation where you got to work at it and there’s a little adversity, there can’t be any sense of entitlement just because we spent a lot of money on the team or we’re in a new building.
“We have to work at it. We have to literally go out and have the type of mental toughness where we have to beat our opponent. Our opponents are not going to lay down and allow us to win.”
Starting today against the 76ers, the Nets have a stretch of five games in seven days, but Johnson said he is not worried about the busy week and felt good after what he said was an “outstanding” practice yesterday.
Following Deron Williams questioning the team’s offensive system and the Nets averaging just 86 points over their past three games, Johnson said the team went “pretty heavy on how we want to change some things offensively,” and had the team work on late-quarter situations and pushing the pace.
“I thought this was probably our best practice in terms of moving and cutting and guys not standing around,” Johnson said. “We played a little game where it’s the end of quarters, three minutes to go and see how we execute. All of the issues that have hurt us during this stretch, we had a chance to work on a lot of those situations.”
The five straight wins to end November, their place atop the league’s elite, may not have been a mirage, but Johnson believes the team’s fast start may have made people forget the key pieces of the team haven’t spent much time together on the floor. Joe Johnson joined before the season, Brook Lopez missed nearly all of last season and Gerald Wallace played just 16 games in New Jersey.
Even the coach still is figuring them out, as the team’s inconsistency has left him unable to solidify a rotation.
“Did Miami think they were going to start Shane Battier at power forward when they came into last season? No, they kind of fell into it,” Johnson said. “We’re not there yet and I think a lot of times because of the start we got off to, people started doing math in their mind. Well, if they’re 11-4 after 15 games, what does that mean at the end of the season? It doesn’t mean anything because we’re not at the end of the season. Then, if they lose five in a row, well what does that mean in the overall record? Right now it’s just one game, one practice and we’ve got to just get better.”