Brooklyn named Vaughn its new head coach. Can he turn the season around?
A week after firing Steve Nash, the Nets officially named Jacque Vaughn as their new coach. The Crossover staff breaks down the decision and what it means for the team going forward.
What are your thoughts on the Nets’ hiring Jacque Vaughn?
Howard Beck: It was the right move, for three reasons: 1. Vaughn has shown he’s capable during his two stints as interim coach and deserving of the chance. 2. While Ime Udoka—the Nets’ presumed first choice—has the weightier résumé, his presence wasn’t going to fix this team. They’re not making the Finals, no matter who coaches. 3. Hiring Udoka would have been, at minimum, horrible optics, especially for a franchise still embroiled in the latest Kyrie Irving controversy. Udoka is serving a one-year suspension in Boston, for having an improper relationship with a subordinate. Though the Nets are not bound by another team’s ruling, it’s not a great look or sound policy to hire someone under that sort of cloud. It arguably undermines a partner franchise, and the league itself.
Chris Herring: My first thought is: At least they didn’t hire Ime Udoka, who would have been a completely backward sort of hire for a team that’s repeatedly said it needs to get back to building a better culture. Udoka, for how talented he’s shown to be, wouldn’t have been sending that message, given that he just found himself on the outs in Boston for something that dealt with workplace culture.
Robin Lundberg: I like the hire for the Nets. This is a team that needed to get away from drama and in doing so they hired a coach who has paid his dues. Not to mention Brooklyn has looked much better since he took over, with more connectivity on defense and more ball movement on offense.
Chris Mannix: Full disclosure: I was among those reporting last week that the Nets were close to an agreement with suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka. According to sources with direct knowledge of the situation, Udoka had been in contact with the Nets for several days before Brooklyn’s decision to part ways with Steve Nash and was close to contract terms. But the events of the past week—which included a very ugly public incident with Kyrie Irving and backlash, both public and, reportedly, private—clearly influenced Brooklyn’s decision to move on.
That said: Vaughn is an excellent choice. Vaughn capably steered the team following the firing of Kenny Atkinson in 2020, guiding the Nets into the playoffs. He’s well respected in the locker room and deserving of the opportunity. Who knows whether it will make a difference—more on that below—but given the circumstances this was a safe choice.
Rohan Nadkarni: I’m happy for Vaughn! This is still a high-profile gig, and his name hasn’t exactly been popping up in coaching rumors. He seemed to guide the team with a steady hand while in the bubble. Obviously, the team probably couldn’t handle a second firestorm by hiring Ime Udoka. It’s cool to see Vaughn get a chance, though his new position feels far from secure.
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What can Vaughn do to turn the Nets’ season around?
Beck: Not much! Coaching was never the primary cause of the Nets’ woes. It’s hard to win consistently when your roster lacks plus defenders and big-man depth, when your two shooting specialists (Seth Curry and Joe Harris) are injured, when one of your stars (Irving) is serving a five-game suspension and another star (Ben Simmons) is a shell of himself. Most of the Nets’ payroll is devoted to three players, leaving them with little depth and no margin for error. Oh yeah, and their main star demanded a trade four months ago and later asked for the firing of the coach and GM. So, yeah, bad vibes all the way around. As I wrote last week, it’s time to admit failure and blow this thing up.
Herring: I’m not completely sure Vaughn can do that. Figuring out the Kyrie question seems more like a management issue than a Vaughn issue. I don’t know that any coach can turn this situation around without Kyrie being resolved one way or another. But jump-starting Ben Simmons and figuring out how to get this team to play defense would be necessary to get and keep Brooklyn on track.
Lundberg: For one, keep the team committed defensively as they were on the recent road trip that saw them hold three consecutive opponents under 100 points. Secondly, continue to separate Ben Simmons from Nic Claxton. What Simmons can bring if anything is an open question, but Claxton has undoubtedly been better when playing separately from Ben. And finally, keep giving guys like Cam Thomas and Yuta Watanabe the opportunity to prove they can help the squad.
Mannix: Vaughn is a good coach, but if Brooklyn turns it around it’s unlikely he has much to do with it. It will be more about Irving’s returning and being more All-NBA and less All-Distraction. It will be about Durant staying healthy and playing at an MVP level. It will be about Ben Simmons regaining his confidence. It will be about Sean Marks fleshing out the roster with another big man. I was never a Steve Nash fan, but among the Nets’ problems, coaching was pretty far down on the list.
Nadkarni: He needs Kevin Durant to buy in. The Nets are now on their third coach since signing KD, and Vaughn has to deal with the fact he wasn’t the first choice for this job. If Vaughn can get Durant in his corner, that’s the only way he can even begin to have an impact on this team. It won’t matter what magical strategies he pulls out on either end of the floor if Durant is not on board with this hire. If KD shows support for this move, Vaughn can try to make an imprint instead of feeling like a placeholder.
Describe the Nets’ first three weeks of the season in three words.
Beck: Un. Mitigated. Disaster. We all knew in the preseason that the Nets were the team with the greatest potential variance—enough star power to make a deep playoff run, and enough volatility to implode. I’d say we have our answer.
Herring: It’s a mess. The Nets’ pulling the plug on hiring Udoka, whether it was an organic choice or someone in the league got in their ear, makes it a slightly smaller disaster than it would have been. Still, it’s disheartening that this team has been so desperate to win and generate attention that it can’t get out of its own way much of the time.
Lundberg: Dramatic dumpster fire. Kyrie Irving burned any good vibes to the ground not just by posting the link he did but by repeatedly failing to clean things up when given multiple opportunities to do so. In addition, it was only the latest in a series of incidents around Irving. While a championship is now unlikely for the Nets, the best thing for the franchise could simply be to become a drama-free, watchable and likable team that competes in the East, with this stretch determining how they should approach the future with KD.
Mannix: An unmitigated disaster. Nash. Irving. Simmons. Wondering when Durant will get antsy and ask out (again). If you had forecasted a worst-case scenario for the first three weeks of the season, this would be it. Yet—and this may sound wild—I still give a team with this much talent a chance to turn it around.
Nadkarni: Exhausting and Underwhelming. It’s not rocket science why, people. I’ve never seen such a middling team turn into such a national story beyond sports. It’s been draining following each round of Nets drama for the last two seasons. Hopefully whatever theatrics come next pertain to only what’s happening on the court.
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