Kevin Durant reflects on Nets’ 2022, Kyrie Irving stays focused

Reflecting on a tumultuous 2022 calendar year, superstar forward Kevin Durant said the Nets are finally playing the kind of basketball the organization has strived for since he and Kyrie Irving arrived in Brooklyn in the summer of 2019.

“It was one of those years you reflect on, and you see the turning points in the organization,” Durant said after sitting the entire fourth quarter in the Nets’ wire-to-wire victory over the Charlotte Hornets on New Year’s Eve. “You see the different moments that brought us together as a group. At this point now towards the end of the year, you start to see us come together and form what we’ve been looking to do these last couple of years which is a solid team that plays hard every night.

“So we went through a lot this calendar year, but we looking for bigger and better things in 2023.”

The Nets extended their league-best winning streak to 11 games with their 123-106 victory over the Hornets on Saturday. They have won 18 of their last 21 games and are 22-7 since Jacque Vaughn replaced Steve Nash as head coach after the first seven games of the season.

Durant named the coaching change as one of several turning points in a roller-coaster ride of a calendar year that included a number of trade requests, a number of absences for Irving and a Nets season that ended via a first-round sweep by the Boston Celtics in last year’s playoffs.

The very thought of a championship-contending Nets team hung in jeopardy when twice Durant requested a trade during the offseason, including one reported demand that included both Nash and general manager Sean Marks be fired.

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“For us to be able to bring the group back together and start the year was cool, and then once Jacque became the coach and we started to move forward then obviously that was a turning point for us,” Durant said. “Then we had some stuff that wasn’t ideal: guys out the lineup, Kyrie out the lineup, James Harden demanding a trade, it was a lot of stuff that we went through.

“How we started the year from an outside perspective, the noise around our team, so it’s good that we can be about ball going into the new year and we’re playing a solid brand right now, so that’s the most important thing.”

Irving declined the opportunity to reflect on the season.

“Everyday is still being written, so I don’t think a year in reflecting is necessary right now, but we just want to continue putting our best foot forward for one another and more importantly for ourselves as professionals,” he said. “So just want to continue to be consistent, stay focused and disciplined.”