NEW YORK — Nets star Kyrie Irving says Brooklyn wants to “erase” the narrative about the team’s weaknesses over the last few seasons.
“Guys are going to be coming at us,” Irving said after a longer-than-usual practice at the HSS Training Facility in Industry City on Saturday. “We want to erase everything that was said about our team the last few years in terms of our weaknesses. We want to turn them into our strengths, and it starts with developing good habits and going out in a game and not just talking about it — doing it.”
The Nets earned a reputation as a team that would coast during the regular season and take games off against lesser opponents. That approach not only cost them in the win column — it cost them in the arena of perception among their peers.
Superstar forward Kevin Durant said on Media Day the Nets weren’t “a respectable team” last season, which is one of the reasons he requested a trade that ultimately went unfulfilled.
“I feel like we don’t have any respect out there on the court, and that’s what I want for us: respect amongst the NBA community as a team on how we play on both ends of the floor, from the GM all the way down to the equipment manager,” Durant said on Sept. 26. “I want that respect, and I think you do that by how you work every single day, and we skipped some steps in how we worked throughout that year last year because of the circumstances.”
The Nets, according to veteran center Markieff Morris, also picked up a reputation as a soft team around the league.
“They were soft. Just point-blank period,” said Morris, who won an NBA championship as a member of LeBron James’ 2020 Los Angeles Lakers team before playing for the Miami Heat last season. “When we played up against them, they were soft. Just go right up in their chest, and that’s what we did.”
Irving said he and his teammates “are human,” and that they discuss what other teams think about them.
“A lot of us have not necessarily played the games that we would have wanted to,” he said. “So it’s easy to say we have a chip on our shoulder, but it’s a little bit deeper than that.”
Physicality is still something the Nets are working through, as evidenced by their blowout loss to a way more gritty Miami Heat team that was also missing several rotation players.
“I think the low-hanging fruit that we could honestly all agree on is sometimes in possessions we’re not playing hard enough,” Irving conceded. “You saw it against Miami the other night. They were really physical, and we don’t want that to be our stigma or M.O. in the league. Everybody knows each other, but the most physical teams usually win ball games, especially down the stretch. So we’ve got to be tougher. We’ve got to be more communicative on our defensive principles out there. And like Kieff said, we’ve got to be comfortable with being uncomfortable at times.”
No Joe
Joe Harris missed Thursday’s matchup against the Heat with ankle soreness and did not practice with the team on Saturday.
“We’re still just monitoring him,” said Nets head coach Steve Nash. When asked if the concern level about Harris’ left ankle — which was operated on twice last season — is still low, Nash said: “Yeah. It’s really just precaution at this point.”
Nash said he thinks Harris will travel to Milwaukee with the team for their Oct. 12 matchup against the Bucks.
Family ties
Irving’s wife gave birth to their son on Tuesday, which is why he sat out of Thursday’s matchup against the Heat. When asked for the name of his son, Irving said: “Eventually I will. It gets weird on the Internet.”
Irving also called himself a “part-time doula” and a “midhusband” assuming responsibilities while his wife was in labor.
“I’ve just been playing caretaker at home, cooking for her, making sure her feet are massaged,” he said. “Making sure I’m doing everything possible as a husband. Making sure she’s taken care of.”
