BOSTON — Joe Johnson has been around long enough to know preseason predictions don’t mean very much.
But as the Nets prepare for a regular season that will have decidedly less fanfare than the previous one, Johnson said the team having less pressure on it should serve it well.
“I think it will help us as a team,” Johnson said before the Nets’ 100-86 loss to the Celtics in their final preseason game at TD Garden Wednesday night. The Nets will return to Boston to face the Celtics Wednesday, the season opener for both teams. “Personally, for me, it doesn’t bother me whether the hype is through the ceiling or through the floor. It doesn’t matter.
“I’ve always tried to keep it even-keeled, but other guys may not be that way, so as a team I think not having so much hype definitely helps, because guys can relax and play and just have fun.”
It was just a year ago Johnson, who sat out of Wednesday night’s game to rest, and the Nets entered the season not only as overwhelming favorites to take the Atlantic Division after their blockbuster trade for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, but as legitimate challengers to the Heat, Pacers and Bulls atop the Eastern Conference.
Instead, the Nets stumbled to a miserable 10-21 start through the opening two months of the season, only to finally begin turning things around after the calendar flipped to Jan. 1.
Since the Nets were struggling, Johnson said fun was the last thing he was thinking about when he went to work.
“It’s more about guys being able to go out and play and relax and enjoy the game,” he said. “That’s the biggest part. You tend to lose sight of the reason why we play this game of basketball. We love it, and we grew up doing this and this is what we love to do. But when you let the outside creep in and it makes you lose focus for some guys. That’s not always good.
“We had injuries, but I think everybody lost focus at the beginning of last year. We weren’t having fun. It was like coming into a job and when it’s like that, it’s bad. It’s bad. We looked bad, we played bad and that’s just kind of how it was.”
Plenty has changed over the past few months, though, with Lionel Hollins replacing Jason Kidd as coach, Bojan Bogdanovic replacing Paul Pierce and Jarrett Jack replacing Shaun Livingston. With the arrival of Hollins, the Nets — who excelled with Livingston playing shooting guard and Pierce power forward in a small-ball lineup last season — will go back to a traditional lineup featuring two big men.
Because of the changes — coupled with the lingering questions about the health of Deron Williams and Brook Lopez — most of the preseason predictions have the Nets struggling to make the playoffs. That is despite the fact they have the core back of the team that won 49 games two years ago and arguably more depth this time around.
Though outside observers might be wondering whether the Nets have a chance to replicate that kind of success this season, Johnson can see the potential for it to happen.
“I think this could be a special season,” he said. “We all have to come to work every day and do our jobs.
“It’s not just [about] staying healthy. It’s more of being willing to sacrifice at both ends of the court for the betterment of the team … if you think back to last year, when we were healthy, we were getting our [butts] kicked. We didn’t really take off until we had a few of our top guys get hurt. It just happened like that.
“Hopefully we can stay healthy, but everybody has to sacrifice.”
