Auditioning Vaughn faces unique task
Jacque Vaughn, the Nets’ coach, will have to jump through hoops in the Disney World bubble to figure out how to maintain cohesion to maximize his team’s performance.
Everything is different in preparation for the Nets’ reopener July 31 against the Magic to start the eightgame finish to the regular season.
With all the weird variables — including no crowd, and coaching a replacement, undersized roster — is this really a fair audition to evaluate Vaughn, whose career coaching record is 60-158? (That includes 2-0 as Nets coach).
Vaughn did not do his best work in Orlando in four seasons, losing plenty of games with the Magic.
The Mickey Mouse Tournament would seem a tough place for GM Sean Marks to decide whether Vaughn can coach Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan to take over New York next season.
Those four guys aren’t even with the team.
Though the Nets’ goal in 2020-21 is to compete for a championship, two NBA sources insist Vaughn has a decent chance at returning to the helm after taking over for the fired Kenny Atkinson, now a candidate to coach the Knicks. Vaughn did not have “interim’’ formally placed in his title like the Knicks’ Mike Miller did.
One league source says the motivation for Marks to keep Vaughn is that the GM can have input with him. The two go back to their San Antonio days when Marks was an executive there and Vaughn was an assistant coach from 2010-12.
With intriguing candidates such as Tyronn Lue, Mark Jackson and Jason Kidd available, it seems Joe Tsai’s Nets at the least would be prudent to conduct a thorough search.
Maybe the search does not have to last as long as the six-week expedition by Leon Rose’s Knicks. But it’s not as if Tsai doesn’t have the cash to pay a marquee head coach.
It should be noted that none of the Nets management that was there when Kidd — who has interviewed with the Knicks — bolted for Milwaukee in 2014 is still with Brooklyn.
Every aspect from a new roster, to changes in advance scouting has made COVID-19 basketball a severe adjustment. And that’s not factoring in the lingering issue of players leaving should they contract the virus.
“There’s going to be a race to see how many people can stay healthy through the course of this thing,’’ Vaughn said Sunday.
NBA players are creatures of habit. Vaughn’s main job is to keep a semblance of normalcy in an abnormal environment and play a high-tempo game with his pint-sized roster.
“Overall we’re so used to game routine,’’ Vaughn said. “What a shootaround looks like going into a game and even the night before a practice looks like. Now they’re having 2 p.m., 2:30 games, afternoon games. What’s your shootaround look like? What is the postgame look like? Where are you warming up — it might not be on the same court you’re playing on. What time do you meet before a game? As a team you’re used to having a set schedule so we’ll have to challenge ourselves to definitely be flexible.’’
Vaughn may get the Nets to overachieve with their makeshift club that includes replacement newbies Tyler Johnson, Lance Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Donta Hall and Justin Anderson.
But that’s not the same as managing the egos of KD, Irving and Jordan and competing for next season’s title.
➤ The Nets took Monday off and will have Anderson for his first practice Tuesday.