During the first few years that Nets general manager Sean Marks restored the building, you couldn’t spend five minutes in the building without hearing the buzzword “culture.”
In his first comment since the Nets’ first-round loss at the hands of Boston, Marks admitted on Wednesday that the hyped culture has been hit hard.
“Are we taking a step back? Without a doubt. The culture is no longer what it used to be. This will be our job,” Marx said. “Between [coach] Steve [Nash] and I, as leaders of this, we will certainly do it.
“But we have to find players who will promote this culture. It must be led by the players. It is not run by one or two people. It must be controlled by the players. They must want it. We have to find players who have the characteristics that support this, namely grit, determination and struggle.”
By finding them this summer, Marx will earn his paycheck.
“After all,” he said, “the dollar stops here.”
Marks dismissed the claim that the Nets got too caught up in player empowerment with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, stating that it was often misunderstood. But given not only the playoff run, but the internal drama that led to it, it’s clear the Nets need to add the right adults to their locker room.
“There was too much debate, discussion, chatter – whatever you want to call it – about distractions and things that aren’t basketball related, while we wanted to focus on what brought it on in the first place. us here,” said Marx. “It’s a focus on grit, resilience and building a team that includes that, and the Brooklyn area can be proud of.
“Everything starts with the composition, starts with our preparation, starts with the summer season. In the past, we have prided ourselves on finding players with a chip on their shoulder, with tenacity who have something to prove. We will have to return to this. We will have to go back to more studying their development, more to finding the right characteristics of a player that fits here.”
While Marks said the goal with this roster is still “to be the last team standing”, he also said he understands the huge contracts handed out to players like Durant, Ben Simmons and (presumably ) Irving, make the rest of the lineup renewable. a door. There will be players coming under rookie and veteran contracts.
“Our team will look completely different every year. This is how it should be if you look at our financials,” Marks said. “It will be a spinning circle down there. We must make the right choice; our group showed that we can draft correctly. Our guys from the player development department showed that they developed the players. The culture will always change and adapt to who comes here.”
The Nets’ acquisitions last summer, Jevon Carter and James Johnson, are long gone, so the revolving circle will have to land on more players like former Nets Jeff Green, Garrett Temple, Jared Dudley and Ed Davis to get the chemistry right. compound.
.