Kyrie content with Nash hire, doesn't see Nets as having a head coach

Kyrie Irving believes his relationship with new bench boss Steve Nash will give the Brooklyn Nets a more distributed sense of leadership between the roster and coaching staff.

"Steve is great, and I have a relationship with him that's going to build over time, bro," Irving said recently on "The ETCs with Kevin Durant" podcast. "We worked out one time in 2014, but it's grown as just a respectful relationship from afar. I saw him at the Hall of Fame two years ago, gave him a big hug, and now he's the head coach.

"And I think it's also going to change the way we see coaches. I don't really see us having a head coach. KD could be a head coach, I could be a head coach."

Nash was a surprise hire by the team in September. Jacque Vaughn, who had filled in on an interim basis after former head coach Kenny Atkinson stepped down in March, will remain on Nash's staff as an assistant.

Brooklyn will be Nash's first-ever stint as a head coach. The former two-time MVP carved out a Hall of Fame career setting up teammates on the court but will now be tasked with figuring out whose hands to put the ball in late from behind the bench.

When Irving was asked by cohost Eddie Gonzalez who was better suited to take the last shot in a one-point game between him and Durant, Irving praised KD while simultaneously appearing to take a veiled shot at several of his former teammates.

"Depends on who's hot. I don't see it as anything other than that," Irving said. "(A) 1-3 pick-and-roll, or it's an ISO for either one of us, is something great for our team. One thing I've always been comfortable with is I felt like I was the best option on every team I played for down the stretch.

"This is the first time in my career where I could look down and be like, 'That motherf----- can make that shot, too, and he can probably do it a lot easier.'"

Irving played with LeBron James from 2014-17 with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The two won an NBA championship together in 2016.