Leaving the circus: Nash's Nets tenure ends in predictable fashion

Steve Nash's firing - or his mutual parting of ways with the Brooklyn Nets, depending on your perspective - was completed Tuesday. In reality, it was always going to end this way for the Hall of Fame point guard when he agreed to coach a team led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

You can make the argument that all coaches begin their journey toward dismissal the day they're hired, but not many coaching journeys come with such predictable drama and chaos.

Injuries had already added to Irving's reputation as one of the NBA's most unreliable stars before he got to Brooklyn in 2019. He grew into one of the league's most disruptive forces - some would argue destructive - after Brooklyn hired Nash in 2020; a hiring that was met with Irving telling Durant, "I don't really see us having a head coach ... KD could be a head coach, I could be a head coach." Irving's since added "promoter of anti-Semitic content and Alex Jones conspiracies" to his resume.

Durant was coming off an 18-month layoff due to an Achilles injury when Nash assumed control of the Nets, and the latter had previously discussed Durant's lack of fulfillment in three years with Golden State despite winning everything there was to win. In Brooklyn, Durant has performed spectacularly on the court but missed 40% of the team's games. He also requested a trade, then reportedly asked for Nash's termination before ultimately backtracking on both.

If Nash was only going to get seven games of leeway, it's worth wondering why Nets owner Joe Tsai stood behind his head coach - and general manager Sean Marks - when Durant wanted them gone this summer.

Meanwhile, Ben Simmons, acquired in exchange for James Harden - who soured on the Nets in under a year - has unsurprisingly struggled to find his footing after a 16-month layoff.

To be clear: Nash's coaching wasn't good enough to save his job, regardless of the noise. Despite Durant's and Irving's talent, Brooklyn boasts a pedestrian offense (No. 16) to complement a porous (29th-ranked) defense. The Nets haven't done enough experimenting with Simmons-plus-shooting lineups, though injuries to Joe Harris and Seth Curry also contributed to this challenge. As a whole, the team feels unimaginative.

But no coach or game plan could've steered this team away from disaster in the big picture. Raw talent gave Brooklyn a championship ceiling, in theory, but realistic expectations for this particular cast of characters were always that they'd eventually get here: the circus.

And on the off chance anyone was fooled into believing the Nets learned a lesson or two in the years since Irving and Durant arrived, the team is reportedly moving quickly to confirm it hasn't. According to multiple reports, Brooklyn plans to replace Nash with Ime Udoka, who the Celtics suspended for one year for engaging in an improper relationship with a female subordinate (who Udoka reportedly used crude language with before their relationship began).

On Tuesday, Marks denied that the Nets had already decided on a Nash replacement. In any event, Udoka, it seems, will be next to join the circus. Brooklyn's no doubt hoping that some of the coaching magic he used to lead Boston to the 2022 Finals will help the team steady the ship. Having both Harris and Curry in the lineup at some point should help. But the Nets won't realize their ultimate potential. Irving will continue to be an agent of chaos. Simmons will continue to confound. Durant will hope that one of his preferred teams matches Brooklyn's asking price for his services, despite the fact he's 34 and owed roughly $197 million over the next four years.

Little will improve, and nothing will change for the Nets until they purge themselves of the toxicity wrought during the Irving and Durant era, which now includes Udoka's baggage.

Until they do, the team's next head coach will be as doomed as Nash was when he walked through the door.

Joseph Casciaro is theScore's senior content producer.