Nets will give Vaughn a ‘legitimate opportunity’ to win job
Who is going to be the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets? That’s a question the basketball world has asked since the Nets shockingly parted ways with Kenny Atkinson in early March. Several names have been thrown into the mix: Brooklyn native and former Warriors coach Mark Jackson; former Cavaliers championship head coach Tyronn Lue; Lakers assistant and former Nets coach Jason Kidd; even former Bulls and Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau, who has been more in Knicks rumors lately.
One name that hasn’t garnered much consideration is Jacque Vaughn, Atkinson’s former assistant coach who is serving as the Nets interim coach for the remainder of the season. NBA insider Shams Charania recently made a podcast appearance where he said Vaughn may be more of a candidate to retain his job than many have written him in for.
“I really do think that the
Nets will give Jacque Vaughn a legitimate opportunity to win the job,” Charania said on the June 9 episode of the Load Management podcast. “This is a guy that comes from the Spurs background, has the same pedigree as Sean Marks. As far as I know, he does a good job of working with players, building that relationship. As crazy as it is maybe for you guys to hear, Jacque Vaughn is going to get a legitimate opportunity to win this job, and obviously we’ll be able to see that beginning July 31.”
Here’s a friendly reminder: Vaughn is the only undefeated head coach in the NBA this season. His Nets are 2-0 since he took over for Atkinson, first with a home win over the Chicago Bulls, next with an impressive, signature win on the road against LeBron James, Anthony Davis and a fullstrength Los Angeles Lakers team.
The Nets were scheduled to travel to San Francisco and face the Golden State Warriors two days later, but the season was suspended due to the coronavirus.
Vaughn also has championship pedigree, having won as a point guard with the San Antonio Spurs in 2007.
Charania also delved into the Atkinson firing, and insinuated — as many believed — Atkinson’s dismissal wasn’t as “mutual” as the Nets made it appear.
“Let’s start early in training camp: The offense he wanted to go with was not something that vibed with his star players, Kyrie Irving to Kevin Durant to Spencer Dinwiddie, on and so forth, which was a free-for-all offense,” Charania said. “It wasn’t like a set regime, or like a set style. He was still trying to play the way that they were playing with D’Angelo Russell, and I don’t think guys went for that.
“As the year went on, I think that different things became issues. Kenny Atkinson, who’s a great guy, a good coach, I think struggled to deal with having these star players and having to deal with their wants and desires. The DeAndre Jordan point ended up becoming a big one. DeAndre Jordan wanted to start, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are his friends. They are a major reason why he was signed to that big contract. Kenny Atkinson did not want to start him. That became a butting heads point for that entire organization.”
Charania, finally, ended on a team meeting that took place in which Durant voiced his displeasure with the lack of “championship-caliber qualities” being instilled in Brooklyn.
“I think as time went on, people started to see it all starting to wear on Kenny Atkinson,”
he said. “There was a big blow-up team meeting that occurred Wednesday before he was fired. He was fired on a Saturday. A lot of emotions, and in that meeting, Kevin Durant said these are not the championship-caliber qualities we want to build here in Brooklyn. This just is not it. And that message rang true throughout the organization. And any time Kevin Durant speaks up in a team meeting, everyone’s gonna listen.
“You can match all the factors in and by the time Sean Marks let Kenny Atkinson know what time it was, I think everyone knew Kenny Atkinson was not long for the job.”
Atkinson is still regarded as a top-tier head coach due to his ability to develop young players, as he did with Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Joe Harris and, of course, D’Angelo Russell. The Nets, however, opted to go in a different direction.
The ball is in Jacque Vaughn’s court now.