The Brooklyn Nets have only played two games under interim coach Tony Brown, but Thaddeus Young already sees a big difference in the coaching style from the fired Lionel Hollins.
The Brooklyn Nets have had a very disappointing 2015-16. They are currently 11-28, and the poor performance resulted in head coach Lionel Hollins being relieved of his duties and fired over the weekend. In his place, the Nets have named assistant coach Tony Brown as the interim head coach.
The first game under Brown was not an easy one, as the Nets got blown out of the water by the San Antonio Spurs, losing 106-79. That extended their losing streak to five games, as it looked like it would be much of the same for the Nets under Brown as it was under Hollins.
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The Nets were already not playing well, and to add to the difficulties they are dealing with a number of injuries. They are still waiting for rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to return from his broken ankle, as he has missed the last 20 games. He was joined recently on the sidelines by starting point guard Jarrett Jack, who tore his ACL and partially tore his meniscus, ending his season.
With so much going up against them, it would have been easy for the Nets to roll over against the New York Knicks Wednesday night. The Knicks were coming into the game playing strong basketball, and even without an injured Carmelo Anthony they had confidence going into the game.
But, the Nets surprised a lot of people and picked up the victory, defeating their crosstown rivals 110-104. A big reason for the win was the play of Thaddeus Young, who stuffed the stat sheet once again. Young scored 19 points with 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals in 39 minutes as he was a catalyst in the victory.
Young has been one of the few bright spots for the Nets this season, as he combines with Brook Lopez to make one of the better power forward/center duos in the NBA. Young credits the attitude and demeanor of interim coach Brown and did not hold back when asked what the difference between playing for him and Hollins was.
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“When your coach is not panicking and he’s staying positive and he’s continued to motivate us, it’s huge for us as far as an energy standpoint. It makes us continue to want to go out there and continue to play, and it doesn’t keep us thinking about what happened before as much. But Tony’s mentality is, forget what happened before this and let’s try to push and try to win this game. That’s huge for us as a team. it says a lot that he believes in us, that he wants us to compete.”
That is strong words from Young, as he essentially is calling out Hollins for worrying too much about what has happened in the past and not preparing enough for what was ahead of them. It is imperative for players and coaches to forget even what happened on a previous play in a game to have success, so for a player to say a coach is too worried about previous games makes for a poor dynamic.
It gives a little insight to the struggles that the Nets were having thus far this season under Hollins. If what Young says is true, there could be more wins in the future for the Nets as they look to build some sort of momentum in the second half of the season.