Brooklyn gives Nash head coaching reins
Toronto edges Boston, closes to 2-1 in series
Steve Nash was one of the NBA’s most entertaining point guards, the engineer of a high-scoring team that helped usher in a new era of basketball.
Now the Brooklyn Nets want to see what he can do as a coach.
The Nets hired Nash on Thursday, putting the Hall of Famer in charge of the team that hopes to have Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving together next season.
“Coaching is something I knew I wanted to pursue when the time was right, and I am humbled to be able to work with the outstanding group of players and staff we have here in Brooklyn,” Nash said in a statement.
Nash, two-time MVP as the playmaker of the Phoenix Suns teams under Mike D’Antoni that piled up points and 3-pointers long before they became the norm in the NBA, had been a player development consultant with Golden State, where he worked with Durant.
D’Antoni, now coaching Houston, said he texted Nash when he heard the news.
“Jumping from the frying pan into the fire,” D’Antoni said.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was the general manager in Phoenix for part of Nash’s time and took elements of the Suns’ system in winning three NBA titles. He thanked and congratulated Nash with a message on Twitter.
“You are going to crush it in Brooklyn!” Kerr wrote.
The hiring was a surprise around the league. D’Antoni said Nash hadn’t reached out to him, nor had Nash told Toronto Raptors and Canadian national team coach Nick Nurse.
“It caught me off guard, that’s for sure,” Nurse said before Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals between Toronto and Boston. “I’ve known Steve for a long time and talk to him quite a bit, and have talked to him quite a bit recently. So, he kept all that to himself, close to his chest, so it caught me off guard.”
The Nets said they would have a Zoom news conference next week to introduce Nash, the franchise’s 23rd coach and the second Hall of Fame point guard without head coaching experience they’ve hired since moving to Brooklyn in 2012.
Jason Kidd went right from a player to their coach in 2013, leading the Nets to the second round of the playoffs in his lone season before leaving to coach Milwaukee.
Nash is third in NBA history with 10,335 assists and the 2005 and 2006 MVP, one of only 10 players to win it in back-toback years. Phoenix made the Western Conference finals in both seasons, playing a style that critics sneered at as the Suns put up what at the time were the three highest single-season 3-point totals in league history.
Now even big men shoot 3s, as teams prioritize pace and spacing the floor rather than pounding the ball into the paint.
Nash should have a team talented enough to do all that. Not only should Durant and Irving be recovered from their surgeries, but players such as rising star Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris — assuming he is re-signed — would all fit nicely.
Unless Nash springs another surprise and plays another style.
“He might go back to a traditional two bigs, I don’t know,” D’Antoni joked. “He might just walk it up and the floor and throw it to his big center, so who knows.”
The Nets finished the season under Jacque Vaughn and said he would remain on staff as Nash’s lead assistant.
The Nets reached the postseason despite having Irving for only 20 games and Durant for none, but the two stars who came to Brooklyn together last summer are expected to be ready for the 202021 season.
That made the Nets’ vacancy an attractive position, and general manager Sean Marks said he met with a number of highly accomplished candidates.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Memphis’ Ja Morant Morant was announced Thursday as the runaway winner of the rookie of the year award for 2019-20, the first Grizzlies player to win the award since Pau Gasol in 2001-02. Morant averaged 17.8 points and 7.3 assists this season, picking up three Western Conference rookie of the month awards along the way. Miami’s Kendrick Nunn was second and New Orleans’ Zion Williamson was third.
Thursday’s games
RAPTORS 104, CELTICS 103: In Lake Buena Vista, Fla., OG Anunoby caught a crosscourt inbounds pass from Kyle Lowry and hit a 3-pointer with no time remaining, and Toronto beat Boston in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Toronto cut Boston’s series lead to 2-1. The Celtics took a two-point lead when Kemba Walker found Daniel Theis for a dunk with a half-second left.
No team in NBA history has rallied from a 3-0 series deficit. The Raptors won’t have to try it now; Lowry elected to audible and throw the long pass — high over 7-foot-5 Tacko Fall — to Anunoby.
Lowry played virtually the whole way, finishing with 31 points, eight assists and six rebounds. Fred VanVleet scored 25 points, Pascal Siakam had 16 and Anunoby 12.
Walker scored 29 points for Boston, which lost for the first time in seven playoff games. Jaylen Brown had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Celtics.
CLIPPERS 120, NUGGETS 97: Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points and Los Angeles rolled past Denver in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Paul George scored 19 points and Marcus Morris added 18. The Clippers shot 57% from the field.
Nikola Jokic scored 15 points for the Nuggets, who were coming off a sevengame series with Utah that just ended Tuesday. Jamal Murray, who averaged 31.6 points in the first round and scored at least 50 points twice in that series, finished with just 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting. Denver shot just 42%.