Winless Nets trying to ‘keep positive vibes’ through horrific start

INDIANAPOLIS — Everybody knew the Nets would be tanking this season.

That doesn’t make going through it any easier.

The winless Nets have tied the second-worst start in team history. And they’re trying to make sure they keep their heads right as they head into Wednesday night, to make sure their morale survives a horrific 0-7 start to the season.

“We’ve just got to stay together. Times like this — whether it’s a success or whether it’s a rough time — it really can show your true colors,” said Nic Claxton. “So we’ve just got to stay together. We’ve got a lot of high-character individuals in the locker room, and we’ve got to just keep chopping and we’ll just get over that hump and get a win.”

The Nets haven’t been able to get a victory — even a moral one, or a Pyrrhic one. They came into Tuesday as one of just two winless teams in the league, with New Orleans mired at 0-6.

The Nets have been even worse.

Without a top point-of-attack defender on the roster, the Nets have been a sieve so far and figure to be for the rest of the season.

The start is the second-worst in franchise history, and tied for their worst since 2015-16, when they went 21-61. This season is projected to be even worse.

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That’s why coach Jordi Fernández met with his Nets both as a team and individually before Monday’s loss to Minnesota, trying to maintain morale.

“It’s the same message. Just keep positive vibes. Obviously, nobody wants to be 0-7 right now,” Cam Thomas said. “We want to try to get a win. But at the end of the day, we’ve just got to keep working hard, keep finding silver linings, keep building off those. And obviously looking at the mistakes that we’re doing, and trying to clean those up.”

Thomas joins Michael Porter Jr. as the only proven scoring options for the Nets. The latter missed Monday’s loss due to personal reasons, and is expected back Wednesday, according to Fernández.

Still, even with Porter on the floor, with the Nets devoid of any veteran point guard play — having just teens Ben Saraf, Egor Dëmin and Nolan Traore — it has led to Thomas getting doubled more. His shot diet has already been inefficient, and with no shot creation on this roster there is a danger of his offensive process devolving even further.

“Defenses are a little more keying in on me to start the games,” Thomas said. “I mean, they were always keying in on me, but now they’re making an emphasis to take me out of the game. So, just got to read the game early, see the early pass, and just trust the guys to make their shots and keep taking the shots when they’re open.

“It’s definitely something I got to figure out and adjust to. It’s only game seven on game eight, so still early in the season, relatively. … We’re going to try to go to Indiana and try to get one.”

The Nets will face a 1-6 Pacers team without the injured Tyrese Haliburton. Then again, they just got blown out by a 76ers team sans Joel Embiid and a Minnesota team without Anthony Edwards.

They’re deep in the throes of a rebuild, and have to keep morale up.

“It’s part of life. You have to embrace adversity and try to figure it out and give yourself a chance,” Fernández said.

“Things don’t change overnight. When you don’t give yourself a chance, it’s not like you decide one day and all of the sudden it happens. Right now, we’ve seen positive steps. Have we been competitive? A little better. Have we been selfless? A little bit better. Have we been connected? A little bit better. The bench was really good. So all those things, if we keep doing and we keep doing a little bit better then that turns into wins. And then once you taste winning, you wanna do it again.”

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Brooklyn assigned Saraf, Traore and Danny Wolf to G-League Long Island.