The biggest news to come out of the NBA All-Star Break was the Brooklyn Nets‘ decision to make a head coaching change. Brooklyn fired Jacque Vaughn amid the team’s massive struggles this season.
Vaughn coached the Nets for parts of three seasons. He was head coach for 10 games in 2020 when COVID-19 paused the league for months. Vaughn was an assistant before taking over as head coach last season after Steve Nash stepped down 10 games into the season.
Overall, Vaughn went 71-68 as the Nets head coach and 0-8 in the postseason. It would seem like a rash decision to fire a head coach after signing them to an extension a year ago, but the Nets felt it was time to make a move.
There have been several reports as to why the move was made. Players reportedly weren’t confident in Vaughn being the right person for the job. There were also people within the organization who believed keeping Vaughn would make it difficult for the Nets to bring in talent in the offseason.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, during a recent edition of the HoopsHype Podcast, had Nets beat writer Brain Lewis on as a guest. One of the major topics was Vaughn’s firing, as Scotto revealed more details on why the move was made.
“Behind the scenes, there were rumblings about players, including Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie when he was on the team and others who weren’t thrilled with Jacque Vaughn’s game plans centering around Ben Simmons, who’s been injured the vast majority of his time with Brooklyn.
Kevin Ollie was identified as a future coach as a player, was a strong candidate for the Pistons coaching opening, and now gets his shot with the Nets. It’s worth noting two other teams had interest in hiring Ollie as an assistant coach before the Nets did, league sources told HoopsHype. According to Nets GM Sean Marks, there’s no playoff mandate from owner Joe Tsai for the rest of the season. The Nets don’t want to tank and bottom out,” Scotto said.
Building a game plan around someone such as Ben Simmons is certainly a quick way to have the locker room mutiny. It is a recipe for disaster given how difficult it has been for Simmons to stay on the floor.
If he is the centerpiece of what you are trying to do, when he is sidelined, things will look messy on the court. That has been the case in Brooklyn, who started the season 13-10 but has gone 8-24 since.
A change needed to be made and with a few days off for Kevin Ollie to install his own concepts during the NBA All-Star Break, Sean Marks felt the time was right. It will be interesting to see how Ollie does, as Scotto noted he could be a head coaching candidate around the league.
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