Must be hard to sleep in Brooklyn

Here is our deep dive on the Nets' coaching change and an update on everything else unsavory happening with the team unchallenged at the top of the NBA's Dysfunction Power Rankings

Seemingly everyone around the NBA was saying it — by no means just me.

How can Steve Nash possibly coach Kevin Durant again after Durant asked the Brooklyn Nets to fire his coach?

The very unsurprising answer, in the end, is that Nash couldn't.

We still don't have a great explanation for what prompted Durant to just as abruptly back off his them-or-me demand to Nets owner Joe Tsai in August … less than two weeks after he insisted that Nash and GM Sean Marks be sacked.

It simply couldn't work after that and it didn't.

The Nets and Nash announced a mutual parting Tuesday that should soon be followed up by Brooklyn's hiring of suspended Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka to replace him. To succeed one of his closest friends, Marks is turning to another close pal and former teammate in hopes that Udoka can extract some semblance of D from a defensively challenged roster and save the GM’s own job.

Let's go deep on all angles of the coaching change as well as the considerable chaos that is swirling around the Nets at this embryonic stage of the season.

Don't forget that Nash never would have gotten this job if not for his longstanding relationship with Durant.

It feels like eons ago now, but the Nets were greeted with considerable criticism in September 2020 for hiring Nash, who had zero coaching experience at any level.

The decision was not all Durant's even though some painted it that way. As my pal Jake Fischer underlined in a Yahoo! Sports column Wednesday night, Marks' close association with Nash was a key driver.

To be clear, though, Marks wasn't going to hire anyone who failed to command Durant's respect. Nash had gobs of it back then.

How close were they?