After taking over as the interim coach of the Nets earlier this season, Jacque Vaughn has a “legitimate” chance to keep the gig beyond this season, as Shams Charania of The Athletic explained on the Load Management podcast (hat tip to NetsDaily).
“This is a guy that comes from the Spurs background, has the same pedigree as (Nets general manager) Sean Marks,” Charania said on the podcast. “As far as I know, he does a good job at working with players, building that relationship.”
Marks and Vaughn won championships playing for the Spurs in 2005 and 2007, respectively, though they didn’t overlap in San Antonio as players. Vaughn was later in the organization as a scout while Marks was an assistant GM.
Kenny Atkinson was ousted in March and his offense was among the reasons why.
“There were a few things,” Charania added. “Let’s start early in training camp. The offense he still wanted to go with was something that didn’t vibe with his best players, from Kyrie Irving to Kevin Durant to Spencer Dinwiddie on … and so forth … which was a free for all offense. It wasn’t like a set regime, a set style. He still wanted to play the way they were kind of playing with D’Angelo Russell. And I don’t think guys went with that.”
It’s not exactly clear what kind of plans Vaughn has for the offense, as the 45-year-old coach only had two games to showcase his leadership skills. Following Atkinson’s dismissal, Brooklyn went 2-0 before the league suspended its season. Vaughn will get at least eight more games to showcase his ability when the Nets head to Orlando at the end of July.
Its down to Jackson,JVG,Kidd,Mike d’Antoni
Lue and Kyrie did not leave on good terms.
Read this, read that, read the comments, but I cannot tell for sure, grammatically, whether Atlkinson was the one who wanted a “free-for-all offense”, or was it the key players. I will assume that a coach wants things more orderly, and that it is not a good sign when the players reject the system.
In this next year (or two) of uncertainty, they may not want to “pay” a big-time coach. Mike D’Antoni… great basketball mind. How many championships had he won? Steve Kerr… first time head coach. How’d he do with three of the top 3 players in the world at their positions? How’d he do without those 3?
In this day where basketball is, being now more of a player’s game than a coach’s, you can win with great players and adequate coaches (Lue). Any coach can win games with Brooklyn’s talent. Won’t win a championship, but can win games.
A HC is very overrated, it already was in the 80’s & it hasn’t changed, the only difference is a bad coach will make you lose a few extra games, but a good one it won’t make you win any extra games.
Put it simple the HC job is mostly a Psychologist/Cheerleader. Mainly he needs to keep his players happy & motivated, not giving them X’s & O’s, just let them go out there & express themselves.
El Don
Agreed… more a “manager” than coach
Gary St. Jean
I believe he’ll get at least nine more games, not eight. It’s not possible for them to fall more than four games behind Washington.