NBA

Van Gundy: Nets overachieving this season

DALLAS — Jeff Van Gundy thinks the Nets should be quite happy with the progress through their first season in Brooklyn.

In fact, the former Knicks and Rockets coach said he is surprised they have done as well as they have this year.

“I think they’ve overachieved, absolutely,” Van Gundy told The Post Wednesday before calling the Nets’ 113-96 victory over the Mavericks on ESPN.

That, of course, hasn’t been the view of things in Brooklyn, where the Nets came into the season hoping to become contenders after re-signing Deron Williams, committing more than $330 million in present and future dollars to dramatically overhaul the roster and try to fulfill billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s championships aspirations.

But, in Van Gundy’s eyes, the expectations the combination of the spending — including the addition of Joe Johnson to go along with Williams and Brook Lopez — the aspirations of ownership and the team’s move to Brooklyn created set the bar for a successful season to an unrealistic level.

“When you have, to me, high expectations, but not necessarily the roster to fulfill them, you can be enveloped by disappointment,” Van Gundy said. “I think they should be ecstatic [with] where they came from the last couple years to where they are now, and [now] just [need to] keep trying to add and build.”

Those high expectations already claimed one victim this season, as the Nets chose to part ways with Avery Johnson after a 3-10 swoon in December — just a few weeks after being named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month — wound up costing him his job shortly before the start of the new year.

But Van Gundy, who maintained his previous stance on any possible return to coaching himself, saying he wouldn’t comment on any job that was filled, praised the jobs Johnson and interim coach P.J. Carlesimo have done this season.

“I think [the Nets] have accomplished great things,” Van Gundy said. “I think they have maximized what they have. And the only down period, to me, was when Brook Lopez, who I think is a very good player, was out, and the combination of Williams not playing well at that point and Lopez being out led them to a difficult stretch.

“I thought Avery did a great job,” Van Gundy said. “When you factor in Brook Lopez being hurt … that, to me, was the big reason for that December swoon. And then, having been an interim coach [with the Knicks], I think P.J. has handled it in a masterful way. It’s not an easy thing to take over in the middle of the year.”

The last time Van Gundy did a Nets game was in December, when he called the Knicks’ win over the Nets at Madison Square Garden, shortly before Johnson was fired and while Williams was playing well below his usual standard.

But Williams has been a noticeably different player since the All-Star break, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Van Gundy.

“He looks like the player that whipped my [butt],” Van Gundy said, referring to his time facing Williams as the head coach of the Rockets. “He’s a really good player. To me, this isn’t surprising. [It was] when he wasn’t playing well [that was surprising].

“Now, everybody says health issues [were the reason], and I don’t know about all that. I can just tell you about what was [happening] on the floor.”

Despite his feeling the Nets have overachieved this year, because of the way Williams is playing and the wide-open field in the Eastern Conference, Van Gundy said he thinks the Nets have an opportunity to make a deep playoff run this season— if things break correctly for them.

“Well, listen, they could go to the Eastern Conference Finals,” he said. “No question. Because I think anybody could, minus the team that gets Miami.

“If they can get up to third, they could make the Eastern Conference Finals, because someone is [going to]. But they also could lose in the first round.”

tbontemps@nypost.com