Sean Marks Is Finally Putting His Foot Down At The Brooklyn Nets
Regardless of what you think he should do next, or whether you agree with what he’s done up until now... you’ve gotta admit that Sean Marks does not have an easy job. He’s objectively good at what he does. An excellent general manager in the NBA. And even still he’s had so many moments over the last twelve months where 99% of human beings would have had no other choice but to bang their heads on their desk and then drop to the floor and adopt a gentle rocking motion from within a foetal position.
After cashing in their ground-level, feel-good rebuild to go all in on the player power movement, his Brooklyn Nets pretty much gave Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving everything they asked for over three years. Don’t like the coach? We’ll hire a new one that you do like. You want your boy to start at centre over the future all-star big man that we drafted? Yeah sweet as. What’s more is that we’ll even trade Jarrett Allen to bring in James Harden since you fellas are all chummy. If Kyrie Irving goes AWOL to attend his sister’s birthday party then we’ll downplay it. Mate, we’ll back down on our vaccination stance so that Kyrie can play away games. Whatever it takes.
And what has Marksy gotten back in return (apart from one playoff series win in three years)? A trade request because Kevin Durant doesn’t trust the direction of the franchise. KD even, according to reports, going as far as to demand that either the coach and general manager go or he does. That’s the coach, Steve Nash, who Durant was influential in getting hired, and the GM Sean Marks who has given Durant pretty much whatever he wants since he arrived, in the process consciously dismantling a universally respected internal rebuild that he’d already overseen. The audacity of this man!
Sean Marks doesn’t have to worry about that ultimatum though. The owner of the franchise, Taiwanese-Canadian mogul Joe Tsai, made it very clear that he’s not in the human sacrifice business and put his full support behind Marks and Nash. But still this old western standoff shows few signs of any easy solution.
The whole thing is a circus. Last season was an unfathomably depressing one for the Brooklyn Nets. Kyrie Irving refused to get vaccinated even though he knew it’d at least rule him out of 50% of his team’s games and that caused rifts within the team. The Nets came down strong saying if you aren’t all in then you’re not in at all and Kyrie still, inexplicably, didn’t flinch. So he was effectively stood down for the first half of the season.
The team then had all sorts of injuries and covid cases whilst James Harden got frustrated enough to ask to be traded only a year after the team gave up a bundle to get him in the first place. Harden was flipped to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons and change but any hope that Ben Simmons would be good to go having sat out the whole season to that point were slowly extinguished over a course of setbacks both physical and mental.
Kyrie Irving did return to the court after players told management that Irving playing half the games is better than none given their copious injury/unavailable list and by the end of the season the vax restrictions had been lifted to allow him full participation. But the Nets had sunk so low that they needed to win a play-in just to get to the post-season... where they were swept by the eventual Eastern Conference champs Boston Celtics. Nobody enjoyed it. Everyone was miserable. And only one thing was for sure as far as the Nets were concerned: it wasn’t ever gonna be like that again.
So they refused to offer Kyrie Irving a max deal in the offseason. That pissed off Irving who once said that he envisions the Nets as a team without a coach and in his last exit interview spoke about running the franchise alongside Marks and Tsai. It pissed of his bro KD as well. Irving requested a trade and there was buzz about the Lakers perhaps being interested. In the end nothing eventuated and Irving opted into his player option to remain with the Nets for next season (but potentially leave as a free agent afterwards... though there’s plenty of water to go under the bridge before then). Oh yeah and this is what he said, through NBA insider whisperer Shams Charania, upon opting in...
Those would be wise words... if they made any damn sense at all.
No sooner had Kyrie Irving opted in than Kevin Durant requested a trade himself. Up until then Durant had felt like the steady figure in that duo but now the tables had flipped. KD wanted out despite having signed a four-year contract extension on massive cash just a year earlier. And what’s more is that Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets were willing to help him out the door. They’d reached their ‘too many dramas’ limit. Only issue was that Rudy Gobert had been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a king’s ransom in draft picks a short while earlier and if Rudy Gobert can get that kinda haul then a fully contracted Kevin Durant must surely be worth even more. At least that’d be the hardline entry point in negotiations as far as Marksy was concerned.
This, sad to say, could be an irredeemable heel turn from Kevin Durant. He tried it once before when he left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors mere weeks after the Warriors had rallied back to eliminate the Thunder in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. Durant explained his reasons (in as much as he needed to explain himself at all) and went on to win a couple titles... but even the healing hands of time haven’t quite been able to massage all that traitor’s anger out of OKC fans. Steven Adams was in that Thunder team. Now Sean Marks is feeling the same treachery. There are only two New Zealanders in such prominent roles in the NBA and somehow Kevin Durant has managed to betray them both.
Ah but don’t feel sorry for Sean Marks. He’s clearly not feeling sorry for himself - quite the opposite. We’ve seen this behaviour before in different ways from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, nobody’s truly surprised by what’s gone down (even if they may be disappointed). But Sean Marks’ reaction has been surprising. It’s been a complete tonal shift from how he’d been operating these last few years, putting his foot down in opposition to his two superstar players and saying: nah mate, I’m the boss here not you.
There had been a glimpse of this strengthening hardline approach with Kyrie Irving’s vaccination holdout last season, though ultimately they folded and let him rejoin the team. That was circumstantial. This offseason’s behaviour, on the other hand, has reflected a consistent approach. It began with the steadfast refusal to give Kyrie Irving (who has played 103 out of a possible 226 regular season games for the Nets) the contract that he wanted. And has continued with the determination that they’re not gonna flip KD for ten cents on the dollar simply to keep him happy. They’ll probably trade him eventually... but he’s under contract for several more years and that gives them the upper ground. Not him.
It’s actually kinda refreshing. The growth in exercised player power in the NBA is a good and positive thing but same as most good and positive things it’s still best not to go crazy with things. As Joe Tsai alluded to in that tweet there’s an entire franchise to look after here and what’s best for one or two people is not necessarily best for the rest of the organisation. Particularly in this case where the whole thing is bonkers to the point of being completely illogical. At the end of the NBA season Kevin Durant defiantly defender Steve Nash as coach by pointing out the ridiculous circumstances he’s had to deal with. Nash who, by the way, got the job in the first place largely because of KD’s endorsement. Now KD is apparently demanding Nash gets fired?
You can’t make heads or tails of that. Maybe something’s gone on behind the scenes that we don’t know about (and there has been chat around a favourite assistant of Durant’s getting released without his knowledge). Regardless, the Nets aren’t fixing to be held hostage by unreasonable demands.
Also... when Joe Tsai says that they’re gonna do what’s best for the Brooklyn Nets, it’s still possible that involves trading nobody. Lots of frayed egos to attend to in that eventuality but let’s say that Kevin Durant doesn’t boycott the rest of his Nets tenure by going on strike. Hard to see him reporting to the start of training camp – certainly not while he’s partying with James Harden in England getting expert tips on how to force a trade – but training camp’s still a long way away from the start of the season.
If Durant can be convinced to play. And if Kyrie Irving is as contented as he says he is, willing to see out this season with Brooky whether KD is there or not, having done the healing necessary to push this thing forward. And if Ben Simmons is truly ready to step back onto a basketball court. Then you’re looking at a team that’s also added Royce O’Neal and TJ Warren. Which has re-signed Patty Mills. Which has Joe Harris returning from injury. Which still has Nic Claxton and Seth Curry in tow. Tell you what, this might be the best and most balanced roster that they’ve had since Kyrie & KD moved to town. It was a huge deal bringing those two in. Three years later, could you blame Sean Marks for feeling like he still hasn’t had a proper run at a championship with them and that he isn’t prepared to chuck it away without one more push?
Even aside from Irving and Durant there’s a lot that needs to go right for that to happen, to be fair. Warren and Harris are both coming off long term injuries and the team needs them to be the best versions of themselves. Not to mention the absolute quandary that is Ben Simmons’ basketball career. Simmons and O’Neal in particular do significantly raise the defensive floor of this team however. That matters. Especially come playoff time.
Alternatively there are still heaps of KD trade options out there and you know that Sean Marks is exploring them all. If the right deal isn’t there at this moment then no dramas just gotta wait awhile. The bloke’s under contract after all. No hurry. If Sean Marks isn’t gonna be pushed around by his own players then he’s sure not gonna be pushed around by rival executives. Or media members for that matter. Fun fact: Sean Marks has NBA scoop tsar Adrian Wojnarowski living in his pocket…
Gotta note that this new direction probably stems more from Joe Tsai than from Sean Marks. Tsai is the dude who’ll have given Marks permission to start pushing back. This is an elite tier businessman we’re talking about and a staunch vaccine advocate to boot. That man’s got opinions. That man signs the checks. Sean Marks does what Joe Tsai says and nobody else.
What’ll be funky is whether Steve Nash follows suit because up until now almost every time he’s had a microphone put in his face he’s sounded like a man very carefully guarding his words. If Sean Marks has been caught between a rock and a hard place than throw some prayers up for Steve Nash who has been squashed in even tighter. Is he a good coach? At this point he’s probably sub-par but it’s his first gig so improvements should be rapid. And as Durant himself said not so long ago there’s basically no coach alive could make a success out of what he’s had to deal with. Gotta give a bloke time, surely?
It’d be cool if Steve Nash does take on a punk conversion in the offseason but given that his job situation is a lot more fragile than Marksy’s that’s probably not gonna happen. He’s on the hot seat to start the season whether KD stays or goes (remember: what’s best for the Brooklyn Nets franchise, said Mr Tsai). Sean Marks is safe though. What’s more, Sean Marks is out there calling shots again. He’s the general manager of this franchise and don’t you forget it.
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