Amar’e Stoudemire shared his thoughts on why Steve Nash had hardships dealing with the Brooklyn Nets players that resulted in a bitter divorce.
“Everyone wasn’t quite available to play and there were ups and downs, there were major trades that happened with bringing in James Harden, then James Harden departing,” Stoudemire said, via Erik Slater of ClutchPoints. “So as a coach it’s tough to really get that chemistry built or get your strategy implemented within the team because of all those changes. And so because of that I think Steve Nash lost the locker room a bit, and the players didn’t really have the respect as they probably should’ve for a head coach, and I think that’s what led to Steve parting ways with the Nets.”
Stoudemire served under Nash as a player development assistant for the Nets for two years, and his narratives can’t be more factual enough.
Nets players not responding to him became the tipping point for Nash to finally call it quits, as both sides ultimately cut their ties with each other on Tuesday.
Further added by Stoudemire, the players were disgruntled that there was no defensive system that held them accountable, which may hint at the Nets’ desire of chasing the suspended Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka to be a replacement
“The players were growing frustrations because they wanted to have a defensive structure that would allow them to hold each other accountable,” Stoudemire added. ‘When plays break down and someone makes a mistake, you want to be there to cover for them, but you also want to let them know, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to do it this way. You made a mistake, but now let’s force him down into whatever the coverage is.’
“And I think because we didn’t quite have that strategy implemented within the team, whenever someone makes a mistake, the next person makes a mistake, and then who are we holding accountable for these mistakes? So now it’s a flux of a lot of people making mistakes and finger-pointing. And then that creates an unstable environment, which then now creates bad defense and bad offense.”
