The Brooklyn Nets named Jacque Vaughn their new head coach on Wednesday.
According to ESPN senior NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, Vaughn’s deal will make him Nets’ coach through the 2023-2024 season.
Jacque Vaughn’s promotion to Brooklyn Nets coach comes with a deal through the 2023-2024 season, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 9, 2022
The Brooklyn Nets have named Jacque Vaughn as head coach. pic.twitter.com/sgQZ4OtFNA
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) November 9, 2022
Vaughn will take over for Steve Nash, who was fired on Nov. 1 after a poor beginning to the 2022-2023 NBA season.
The hiring comes as a bit of a surprise considering that former Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka seemed to be next in line for the Brooklyn coaching gig.
Vaughn will have his work cut out for him turning around the Nets rocky season. So far this year, the Nets are 4-7 and are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings, according to ESPN.
Coaching the Brooklyn Nets seems like a hard job. They are a team that is commonly distracted by off-court drama. Prior to this season getting underway, their best player, Kevin Durant, asked to be traded after the squad was swept during the first round of the playoffs last spring. After the Nash firing, controversial point-guard Kyrie Irving was suspended after sharing an anti-Semitic film to his Twitter account. There are a lot of extra-circular things that happen with this team that make it seem like an unfavorable job for Vaughn to take up. (RELATED: NBA Drama Continues As Dallas Mavericks’ Spencer Dinwiddie Claims Referee Cussed Him Out To Teammate)
Considering that Vaughn was a former NBA player himself, maybe he’ll be able to reason with Brooklyn’s players and turn their season around. The good news is that the Nets’ roster is filled with talent. Outside of Durant and Irving, Brooklyn has solid players up and down their roster. Players like Joe Harris, T.J. Warren, Patty Mills, Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, and others are good role players who could play significant minutes for any team in the league.
If Vaughn can get everybody on the team on the same page and get their focus right, Brooklyn should be able to sneak its way back into the postseason.