The past few years, the Nets’ motivation was winning a ’chip.
Now it’s from the chip on their collective shoulders.
And with their championship window slammed shut, Brooklyn GM Sean Marks has had to pivot and cobble together a team with an underdog mentality and players with something to prove. Ben Simmons may be the one facing the most doubters (he’d say slanderers), but he’s not the only one. Far from it.
Now with Wednesday’s opener versus Cleveland, they get a chance to start proving it.
“A lot of guys have a chip on their shoulder. Everybody wants to prove something this year,” Simmons said. “We got guys [who are going to] play hard, play team basketball which is going to be exciting and fun. It’s a fresh start.”
Is Simmons coming into the season champing at the bit with something to prove? After the last two seasons he’s gone through — mental health woes, back surgery, 122 games missed — it’d be hard to imagine if he wasn’t.
“I feel like you know the answer to that, so that’s simple: Get back to where I was, compete at the highest level and make an impact in the game,” Simmons said. “Me, I want to win. That’s all I want to do. That’s the No. 1 priority, winning.”
With Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving long gone, Brooklyn’s best chance of winning this season — getting into even the play-in, much less the playoffs — rests on Simmons and Mikal Bridges, the former returning to his form as an All-Star and the latter making his debut as one.
The Nets have a couple of players looking for rookie extensions, more on expiring deals and some looking to earn their place in the league. Simmons has the most talent, but also the heaviest burden, lambasted by the likes of Stephen A. Smith as arguably “the weakest, most pathetic excuse of an athlete we’ve ever seen — not just in American history, but in the history of sports.”
Yeah, think he has a chip on his shoulder? Or a boulder?
“I mean, how could he not?” Spencer Dinwiddie asked rhetorically. “There’s a lot of people that doubt him, and he firmly feels like he’s that All-Star, All-NBA, All-Defensive team guy, and he’s coming out to prove it.
“And I think he’s going to do that every night. He’s going to lead us to a lot of wins. It’s really on us to try to match his talent level, because he’s reached a peak that nobody on our team has, reached and played at a higher level than any of us have. So it’s on us to be the best supporting cast we can.”
That supporting cast has something to prove.
Whether it’s Bridges gunning for his All-Star debut, or his “twin” Cam Johnson validating the four-year, $94 million summer extension. Or Nic Claxton eyeing his own big payday, Cam Thomas and Day’Ron Sharpe seeking rookie extensions, or about a half-dozen players on expiring contracts.
“We understand we don’t have championship expectations. But … losing doesn’t do us any good, either. And we’re not exactly the youngest team in the world,” Dinwiddie said. “I think everybody’s got something to prove.”
In some cases, it’ll be proving they can lead the Nets through this rebuild. In others, it’s showing they should be around if and when it happens.
It wasn’t an accident, by Marks or coach Jacque Vaughn.
“I hope our group is comprised of guys who really want to prove things. Whether that’s their existence in the league, whether that’s being able to garner more attention in the league,” Vaughn said. “We tried to put a group [together] that was extremely competitive.
“Usually dudes who’re competitive have some sort of chip they’ve created or that exists, so I don’t mind it. Hopefully I can tap into that and use that.”
It’s a very different chip than the one Brooklyn used to use for motivation. But the Nets have changed, and so have the expectations around them.