Nets’ Jacque Vaughn keeping familiar philosophy during important stretch

BROOKLYN — The Nets are in the midst of a push toward the playoffs and down to their final 11 games of the regular season. But head coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t letting himself or his team get too far ahead of themselves.

The final stretch of the season has plenty of implications for Brooklyn, which entered Sunday’s game with the Denver Nuggets two games back of the fifth-place Knicks and two games ahead of the seventh-place Miami Heat. Even with plenty of different factors to worry about, Vaughn’s philosophy of taking things one day at a time hasn’t changed.

“There probably was a time in my life where I probably tried to look too far in advance,” Vaughn said about the origin of his philosophy. “Maybe my first time around as a head coach and what was it gonna look like a year from now? What was it gonna look like two years from now? What if these dudes grow up together? That didn’t work too well for me. I probably come with a little bit of a melting pot of COVID when I was here in Brooklyn by myself and my family was living in a different state of realizing how important each day is.

“There’s been probably some events that go on in my life to really boil down to me being here today and simplifying things. … I’m really trying to live that way and keep our dudes kind of honed in and not complicate things. Part of that is just taking care of today.”

Vaughn has continued to implement his stamp on the team since he took over in November after the team parted ways with Steve Nash. Vaughn brought a calming influence to the team since then and he has quickly worked to integrate Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finey-Smith into the system since Brooklyn went through a complete overhaul at the deadline.

The Nets coach said that when you’re able to take things one day at a time and appreciate things in life it makes it easier to be successful on the floor.

“If you can appreciate those small things, this basketball thing becomes easy and you just hoop and you just play and you don’t complicate it,” Vaughn said.

The Nets are in the midst of a four-game homestand at Barclays Center and will play two games against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday and Thursday before traveling to Miami for a crucial game against the Heat on Saturday.

But again Vaughn is keeping everyone’s focus on the here and now.

“I’m trying to really keep our guys honed in almost silo-ish and taking care of that day’s game,” Vaughn said about the upcoming stretch. “I don’t want our guys looking beyond these next four hours really of taking care of business against this team. Our hands will be full enough. So really trying to get our guys to not look ahead and just take care of today’s work.”