The Brooklyn Nets‘ 2022-23 season was considered “typical” for the franchise, according to Chris Lopresti of SNY’s SportsNite TV show. These comments were made as part of a segment that the show was running in which the panel describes the seasons of the New York teams in one word.
As Nets fans know, this past season was a rollercoaster of a ride for everyone involved in the organization. Before this season started, superstar Kevin Durant requested a trade because of his displeasure with how then-head coach Steve Nash was running the show along with various issues within the franchise.
Then, Brooklyn came out of the gates with a disappointing 2-5 start that led to Nash being fired. Despite the sputtering start, the Nets managed to get things back under control as they rode a 12-game winning streak to a 25-12 record at the beginning of January.
However, things changed when Durant injured his knee against the Miami Heat on Jan. 8. Even though Brooklyn won that game thanks to a last-second shot by forward Royce O’Neale, the Nets went on to lose six of its next 10 games, including a 139-96 road loss to the Boston Celtics on Feb. 1.
After that, news broke that Kyrie Irving requested a trade because he and the Nets could not come to terms on a contract extension that worked for both sides. Irving was then traded to the Dallas Mavericks while a few days after that, Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns.
Brooklyn went on to finish the regular season as the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs only to be swept for the second straight season. Here’s why Lopresti says that how this season went for the Nets was typical as he said:
“Typical. In that, it started with promise and expectations well before the trades, of course, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and something always seem to knock the Nets off the track of what they were going for. Whether it was Kyrie Irving off the court, injuries on the court, head coaching changes, firings, just never quite got to where they want it to be. Obviously, the team they went into the postseason with was much different than the team at the beginning of the season, but they only got to that point because things fell apart again, so typical that this Nets regime, the Durant era crashed and burned the way it did.”
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