NBA

Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant giving ‘brutally honest’ input on Nets coaching hire

Nets general manager Sean Marks admits he’ll pick Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving’s brains on the team’s coaching situation. But that was never going to be from firsthand experience at the NBA restart in Orlando, Fla. That’s a risk Marks just didn’t feel worth taking.

“[Irving] is doing well. But like Kevin, you have to look at the risk-reward. When you have a lot of money and your future tied to a couple guys — the whole team, but these two guys are an integral part of it — they haven’t had the appropriate buildup,” Marks said Friday on WFAN. “The last thing you want to do is put these guys out there when they haven’t had the appropriate workload and buildup.”

And Marks won’t ask his stars to expose themselves to COVID-19 in Orlando to evaluate the work of interim coach and perceived frontrunner Jacque Vaughn, either.

“It would not be smart of us if we were not to involve some of these key players in this decision,” Marks said. “Kevin, Kyrie, we’re going to pick their brains on what they’re looking for in a leader, what they need. They’ve been brutally honest so far.

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving
Kevin Durant and Kyrie IrvingCorey Sipkin

“I’m not going to be asking Kevin to come down to Orlando to evaluate anybody. When you get to the level of those elite players, they have ultimate goals in mind. They want to be held accountable. Kevin and Kyrie have told me they want to win a championship in Brooklyn.”

But the decimated Nets are realistic enough to know that title isn’t coming this season. They’re playing the long game.

Even if the word tank never ushered from Marks’ lips, there are reasons to be prudent. If the Nets miss the playoffs, they would retain their lottery-protected first-round pick, currently bound for Minnesota.

“We’ll be strategic in how we play down there and how we compete,” Marks said. “But again this is much, much bigger than the game of basketball. This transcends that.”

The reference was obviously to coronavirus, with DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie having both tested positive, and Jordan having already ruled himself out of the restart. But with Wilson Chandler and Nic Claxton also out, the Nets are a shell.

It’s easy to see why the Nets would be leery about the prospect of oft-injured Caris LeVert — their best young talent, and a potential trade chip if they want to land a third star — getting hurt trying to shoulder too much of the load.

“Absolutely, we have to be smart in how we go down there and how we compete and the team we put out there. We’ve been evaluating and continue to evaluate … who’s playing and who should play and who shouldn’t play,” Marks said. “The players have to make the decision on their own. It’s not entirely up to me. I can certainly direct them in ways we think will be beneficial, but we’re going to take their safety and health and injury risk [seriously].

“That’s a priority not just for this season. We’re looking two and three years down the road.”

LeVert averaged 24.1 points, 5.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds in the last 16 games before the shutdown, hitting 41.3 percent from deep. He admits to COVID-19 concerns, but says the Nets’ team decisions are above his head.

“As a team, the Nets as an organization? I don’t make those decisions; I feel like that’s outside of me. That’s Sean and ownership. That’s not really my job to think of those things,” LeVert said. “Myself individually, that’s definitely a thought in my head. When thinking about personal health and things like that outside of coronavirus and social justice and comfortability down there in the bubble, that’s definitely something I have to consider.

“But as an organization, I don’t think that’s my call to say we’re not going down.”