PHILADELPHIA -- Deron Williams rightfully and honestly admitted Wednesday night that the Brooklyn Nets (6-8) are “pretty far off” from the team they want to be.

“As a whole, we show flashes of what we wanna do and where we wanna be, but we still haven’t sustained that for a full game,” Williams said. “We haven’t had everybody kinda hitting on all cylinders yet. We’re still trying to figure that out. We haven’t had one of those nights where everybody’s clicking for the entire game, and we wanna do that eventually.”

Since Nov. 12, the Nets are 2-6. (And imagine if Reggie Jackson made that open 3-pointer in Oklahoma City at the buzzer or the 76ers hadn’t assembled a young roster built to lose and develop.)

But Garnett isn’t freaking out.

“You are worried. It’s not so nonchalant,” Garnett said. “But the mentality is not to get bored with the process.

“It’s chemistry,” he continued. “It’s the process of which you are trying to build a foundation on something. It’s not going to work the first two weeks. There’s nothing to say in a book or magazine or something that you guys write or a pamphlet that’s going to give you the answers to this. Trying to perfect something takes practice and repetition and to continuously go over it and over it. ...

"That’s what it is and we have to continue to understand that. So I’m just trying to transcend that to everyone in here and be a positive role (model) through the whole transition of all this coming together, and continuing to be positive and continue to work on what we are trying to be.”

Brooklyn’s post-Thanksgiving schedule is about to get tougher, but it also provides the Nets several opportunities to finally get that breakthrough win against a .500-or-better opponent (they are currently 0-6 against those teams): They get Chicago (9-6) Sunday, New York (4-12) Dec. 2, San Antonio (10-4) Dec. 3, Atlanta (7-6) Dec. 5, Cleveland (7-7) Dec. 8 and the Bulls again Dec. 10.

There are reasons for optimism: Williams is averaging 18 points, 7.0 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals in his last five games; Jarrett Jack (50.5 percent shooting for the season) has proven to be a nice acquisition; and Mirza Teletovic’s sky-high confidence hasn’t waned one iota.

But there are also several concerns, too, in addition to the team's blown leads, miscues and disappearing acts.

Mason Plumlee’s sophomore season has been frustrating. He is shooting just 41.7 percent from less than five feet and has been blocked nine times in that area. He’s hitting just 48.6 percent of his free throws, while surrendering a 51.6 percent clip when defending the rim. This has led Nets coach Lionel Hollins to go with Jerome Jordan over Plumlee at times in the rotation.

Meanwhile, Brook Lopez continues to give mixed-bag performances in his attempt to regain form -- he's totaled 28 rebounds, 10 blocks, three assists and 19 turnovers in his last four games -- and Bojan Bogdanovic is in a serious shooting slump, connecting on just two of his last 17 shots from the field (1-for-9 from 3-point range).

The fixes aren’t simple by any means. But the film shows when the Nets are clicking, executing their offensive sets and getting some stops on defense, they can be a tough team to beat. They just haven’t shown it enough.

The hope is that this current stretch of practices and rest helps in allowing this team to become more consistent.

“I can’t put a timetable on it,” Joe Johnson said. “We’ve just gotta keep working, fighting and improving day in and day out.”