After fun first-round loss, Nets limp into offseason where 'nobody's safe'

BROOKLYN — It's been a far different season than Lionel Hollins expected, his first in Brooklyn. A team with championship aspirations went just 38-44, only making the playoffs when the Indiana Pacers lost on the final night of the regular season.

And yet, the growth of a number of individual Nets, along with the team through the duration of their extremely competitive first-round series against the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks could lead to a reassessment of Hollins' first season, which ended Friday night with a 111-87 loss in Game 6.

Hollins spoke frankly about his team all season, often repeating a desire to figure out who his team was. And prior to the Atlanta series, Hollins even said, "I don't think we have any advantages over the Hawks."

Prior to Game 6 on Friday night in Brooklyn, Hollins struck a very different chord about his team.

"I knew it was possible," Hollins said. "When I made those comments, it was if you look at the statistics, everything about their statistics were better than ours. It didn't mean that we couldn't compete with them. But we're where we are now, and that's irrelevant."

Hollins pushed many of the right buttons in a series that few believed would last as long as it did. A player who Hollins marginalized for part of the season and called out for a "lazy" play following a January game, Brook Lopez, became Hollins' best player down the stretch, when the Nets finished the season 11-5 to make the playoffs. And Lopez was the best player on either team for much of this series.

It was Hollins who gave Deron Williams a public vote of confidence prior to Game 4, a game the Nets simply wouldn't have won without Williams' 35 points.

So he had reason for justifiable pride Friday night. Prior to the game, he wasn't ready to think about the big picture.

"Shoot, I wake up each day thinking it might be my last day on earth," Hollins said to laughter. "I don't really get into it that deep. It is a possibility. But I'm a little more positive than that, thinking about what can go right the next game. I guess you're one of those guys that goes on vacation and has four spares in the car."

Hollins received his vacation a bit early than he'd hoped, thanks to a 23-3 run that began the third quarter. Again, his over-matched Nets fought back once. The Hawks ran out to a 36-23 lead on 72% shooting in the first quarter, but the Nets fought back. The second Hawks run, a reminder of the team that finished atop the Eastern Conference, proved to be too much for a Nets team built around a beaten down Williams.

It's anything but clear whether the Nets who return next fall will bear a resemblance to the current group. The Nets have made no secret of their desire to trade Williams and Johnson, finding few takers. Lopez and Thaddeus Young can both opt out of their current contracts, with Lopez expected to do so.

When it was over, a somber Johnson stood in front of his locker and reflected, not just on the loss or this season, but on the period of Brooklyn Nets basketball that began with his acquisition back in the summer of 2012, and might have ended Friday night.

"No, we definitely felt we had more," Johnson said when asked if these Nets had maximized what they were capable of this season. "We had a good match-up. We never thought we were going to get swept, although we didn't have success against Atlanta during the regular season. But during the playoffs, you get to game plan each and every player, know what they like, know what they dislike, so we held our own. We just let it get out of hand in the third quarter and never bounced back from that."

Johnson's implicit endorsement of Hollins was not matched by much certainty that whatever the Nets had figured out late in the year would be enough to convince Nets management to keep this group together.

"I don't know what to expect next season, honestly," Johnson said. "With the way the season went for us, we weren't even a .500 team in the regular season. Which is very disappointing, considering the talent we have in this locker room. Each and every player in here has to feel that nobody's safe."

Hollins put off such questions, asking reporters not to ask him about specific players returning or not in his postgame opening statement. A long summer, including a pair of summer league teams, awaits the Nets. The team who takes the floor next fall in Brooklyn may look very different. The center in a backwards Stanford hat who shuffled out of the locker room Friday night may not return. Others might go, too. Johnson is right. No one is safe. Why should they be? Other teams in the East are better and younger than the Nets.

Before they all went their separate ways, though, the Nets provided some entertainment that few expected from them when the series began.

"I'm proud of our team, and where we started back in September, the uncertainty, new coach," Hollins said. "Kind of blended all together. Then injuries, up and down. I'm thankful for the players, what they gave, proud of how they stuck with it. ... I think we battled and fought, and even in this series we battled and fought. It would've been nice to get another victory, have a chance to go to a seventh game. It wasn't to be. They were the better team."

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