J-Speaks: The Unexpected New Head Coach of the Brooklyn Nets

 

One big question for the Brooklyn Nets heading into this offseason is who would be their new head coach? That search did not take long as they made a big splash in the person to lead them from the sideline.

On Thursday, the Nets announced that they signed Hall of Famer and two-time Kia MVP Steve Nash to be the 23^rd coach in the franchise’s NBA history on a four-year deal, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. This will also be the first head coaching job for Nash in his basketball career.

“After meeting with a number of highly accomplished coaching candidates from diverse backgrounds, we knew we had a difficult decision to make,” Nets General Manager Sean Marks said. “In Steve we see a leader, communicator and mentor who will garner the respect of our players. I have had the privilege to know Steve for many years. One of the great on-court leaders in our game, I have witnessed firsthand his basketball acumen and selfless approach to prioritize team success. His instincts for the game, combined with an inherent ability to communicate with and unite players towards a common goal, will prepare us to compete at the highest levels of the league. We are excited to welcome Steve, Lilla [his wife], Lola, Bella, Matteo, Luca and Ruby to Brooklyn.”

That left the question of what would happen to interim head coach Jacque Vaughn, who guided the Nets to a 7-3 mark when he replaced Kenny Atkinson after he and the team mutually parted ways on Mar. 7. That mark also included a 5-3 record during the seeding games in the restart in Orlando, FL at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and made the playoffs as the No. 7 Seed in the Eastern Conference. Their playoff run was short lived as they were swept by the No. 2 Seeded Toronto Raptors 4-0 in the First-Round.

According to league sources, Vaughn will be Nash’s lead assistant and the Nets are making him the highest paid assistant coach in “The Association.”

“We are thrilled to retain Jacque as a leading member of our coaching staff,” GM Marks also said on Thursday. “Jacque has been an integral part of our program and a key contributor to the growth and development of our entire organization. His role in developing our players both on and off the court and his influence driving our culture have been invaluable. Our players will benefit from the continuity of Jacque’s presence, and we are extremely fortunate to keep him in our Nets family.”

Over the past five seasons, Nash, an eight-time All-Star, two-time Kia MVP, and seven-time All-NBA selection in his 18-year Hall of Fame career with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and Los Angeles Lakers was a player development consultant with the Golden State Warriors, where he was a contributor to two of their three title teams that represented the Western Conference in four straight trips to the NBA Finals.

Marks and Nets owner Joe Tsai over the last few weeks aggressively recruited Nash to make the leap to being a head coach, that he resisted opting to enjoy retirement after a transcendent career that saw him become just the 10^th player in NBA history to win league MVP in consecutive seasons. Lead the NBA in assists per game five of his 18 seasons and is No. 3 in the NBA all-time in career assists. He along with fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird and Reggie Miller, and Malcolm Brogdon of the Indiana Pacers, fellow back-to-back Kia MVP Stephen Curry of the Warriors, Nets’ Kevin Durant, Hall of Famer to be in Dirk Nowitzki, and former NBA lead guard Mark Price as the only players in NBA history of the 50/40/90 (field goal percentage/three-point percentage/free throw percentage).

“I am honored to have this opportunity with such a first-class organization and would like to thank Sean, Joe, and his wife Clara, for having the faith in my ability to lead this team forward,” Nash said on Thursday. “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 there in Brooklyn. I am as excited about the prospects of the team on the court as I am about moving to Brooklyn with my family and becoming impactful members of this community.”

The positive about this hire is that Nash brings a strong connection with Durant, that was forged in their time with the Warriors where he as mentioned was a consultant since 2015. Nash also was one of the best to every play the league guard spot, the position that perennial All-Star lead guard of the Nets Kyrie Irving plays.

Durant said back in 2018 to the San Joes Mercury News that Nash is someone he can “talk” to about anything. Is someone he that he really respects and has the “best” basketball mind that he has ever been around.

“He tries to simplify the game and keep me conscious of those things as well,” Durant added two years ago. “It’s simplifying and keeping it as easy for yourself. I’ve learned so much. So many people taught me how to play. He’s continued to teach me different things I can put in my game. I’m very grateful for him and happy for him.”

Durant also sought Nash’s advice about joining the Warriors, according to an interview also done by the San Jose Mercury-News in 2016.

He told Tim Kawakami back then that when he was deciding whether to sign with the Warriors when he was an unrestricted free agent that summer, it was Nash Durant asked for advice about what he should do.

Durant first asked him about Curry, his fellow All-Star backcourt mate Klay Thompson, and fellow All-Star and fellow All-Star and 2017 Kia Defensive Player of the Year in Draymond Green, and what kind of people they were on a day-to-day basis.

“Obviously, I didn’t know much about that, how they approached their jobs, how they approached working,” Durant said. “And he [Nash] had great things to say, just like everybody else I asked. I trust his judgment.”

Nash also has a kept a good relationship over the years with Marks, his teammate from 2006-08 with the Suns.  

Before he joined the Warriors back in 2015, Nash was pursed by several NBA squads for positions in respective front offices and head-coaching opportunities, according to league sources.

The negative about this hire is that Nash has no head coaching experience. While he worked with Durant with the Warriors, he did not coach him on a daily basis like Steve Kerr did.

He has no coaching experience from being a long-time assistant coach who had to learn how to work with players on a consistent basis in managing their personalities. Conducting practice, dealing with the media, especially after a tough loss. Dealing with rumors from trades or fractures within a team.

The other thing is that the Nets could have waited at least until the end of the 2020 NBA Playoffs to have their pick of coaches who have experience both as a head coach like Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue, who help guide the Cleveland Cavaliers to four straight Finals appearances (2015-18), winning the title in 2016 over the Warriors coming back from a 3-1 series deficit. They could have had shot at hiring longtime assistant coach Sam Cassell, who also played in the NBA in the middle of the 1990s and early 2000s. In his first two seasons with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995, he contributed to their back-to-back titles.

Then there is the architect who helped the Warriors become the team that won three of their four titles in franchise history in current NBA on ESPN/ABC color analyst and New York native Mark Jackson, who ironically enough was replaced by Kerr in the summer of 2015.

One person who definitely made his feelings felt about the Nets new hire in the wake of the times that we are in is commentator of ESPN’s “First Take” Stephen A. Smith, who called this decision “white privilege.”  

“Steve Nash is a sensational dude, and if anybody deserves this opportunity absent the experience that obviously he has as a coach it is him. It happened for Steve Kerr, who had never coached on any level before. But he took over Golden State, and look at the job that he’s done,” Smith said on the Thursday edition of “First Take.” “Steve Nash is highly respected and loved by a whole bunch of people in the NBA, black, white and beyond…”

“This does not happen for a black man. No experience whatsoever on any level as a coach. And you get the Brooklyn Nets job. I know that Kyrie and KD had both signed off on this. I know they both support this move. But I’m thinking about a champion that is Ty Lue passed up. I’m thinking about a guy who built the foundation for the Golden State Warriors in Mark Jackson passed up. I’m thinking about the years that Sam Cassell has served as an assistant, first in the nation’s capital [Washington Wizards] in D.C. and now with the Los Angeles Clippers passed up. And it’s for a guy, my God, one of the best guys you could possibly meet in your life and may do a fantastic job. But a guy that has no experience whatsoever.

On top of that, the Nets went down this road before when they hired current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach in fellow Hall of Famer Jason Kidd on June 12, 2013. Then on June 27, 2013, the Nets really went for broke when they mortgaged three future First-Round picks (2014, 2016, and 2018) as well as the option to swap their 2017 first-round pick for future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and veteran sharp-shooter Jason Terry.

Kidd only lasted one season and the Nets never made it passed the Semifinals with Garnett and Pierce.

There will be similar expectations for the Nets on an even bigger scale this time, and they will enter the 2020-21 season with some major hurdles to get over.

For Durant, he will have to prove he can be the same player he was before he ruptured his right Achilles in Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals with the Warriors at the eventual defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors, that had him on the shelf the entire season in his first year with the Nets.

Irving will also be proving he is still one of the best guards in the NBA after playing all but 20 games a season ago after having season-ending surgery to repair an impingement in his right shoulder.

The connection Nash established with Durant is big at the start of this new partnership. Also, he is coaching Durant and Irving in their prime as opposed to Kidd who coached Garnett and Pierce on the back nine of their careers.

Also, this Nets roster Kidd had was good on paper but could not find a groove on the hardwood and with the front office then trading future assets, Kidd had little wiggle room to develop as a coach.

Nash will not only have two superstars in Durant and Irving, who have reached the mountain top of the league having won titles with the Warriors and Cavaliers respectably, he will have complimentary players to surround Durant and Irving in Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen, and hopefully Joe Harris, who will be an unrestricted free agent later next month.

Most important of all, Nash has a veteran assistant coach in Vaughn to lean on, and he will add members to his coaching staff that he trust, and he has the support of the front office of GM Marks and owner Tsai.  

The one thing that Nash should do to be able to have a solid working partnership with his two superstars, especially Irving is to reach out to some of his previous coaches like Byron Scott, current Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, Lue, and current Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens.

From those conversations, Nash can learn how to deal with the personality of Irving that can be quirky at times, and in the past has really caused friction with his former coaches with the Cavaliers and Celtics.

Durant has also shown in his career, especially in his time with the Warriors that he can be a challenge at times to coach.

Both Durant and Irving have gotten caught up in issues with their teammates, the media, and with others on social media.

For Nash, his ability to coach Durant and Irving will be less about X’s and O’s but holding them accountable and managing their personalities as well as the rest of the team.

What made Hall of Famer Phil Jackson such a great coach was not how he got the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers to learn his Triangle offense, but how he managed the personalities of Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O’Neal, and the Hall of Famer to be in the late Kobe Bryant.

The Brooklyn Nets made a big splash in their new hire as head coach signing Hall of Famer Steve Nash to a four-year deal near the end of this week. It is a gamble for sure that has the makings of failure written all over it. However, he will enter this challenge with a stellar roster, led by perennial All-Stars and previous NBA champions in two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who will enter the 2020-21 season healthy and hungry to prove to the league and their naysayers they can lead the Nets to a title.

The major hope is that Nash, Durant, and Irving can put it all together and not let any outside noise from the internet, fans or the media get in the way of their journey to hopefully win one or two titles together.

One thing that Nash said that he will do as the new head coach of the Nets is continue the fight for social justice.

“As a human being, it’s hard to live with racial injustice,” Nash told Marc J. Spears of ESPN’s “The Undefeated,” via a phone interview on Thursday. “It is important for white people to take a deep look at what is occurring in our communities and what has been occurring for 400 years. A component of this conversation needs to be that white people need to not be offensive about white privilege or inequality. They just need to be honest, have those conversations and ask ourselves how we would feel if we had endured this 400-plus-year history.”

“So, for me, it’s hurtful and it’s wrong. That’s why I have expressed my opinion on the matters because some of us are hurting and it’s not fair.”

Information and quotations are courtesy of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50-40-90_club; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Brooklyn_Nets#2012-15:_New_era_in_Brooklyn_and_playoff_contention; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Nash; 9/3/2020 www.nba.com story, “Nets Hire Steve Nash As Next Coach;” 9/3/2020 https://www.netsdaily.com story, “In Shocker, Steve Nash is Nets New Head Coach,” by Net Income; 9/3/2020 www.espn.com story from NBA Insiders Bobby Marks, Tim MacMahon, Tim Bontemps, Brian Windhorst, and Kirk Goldsberry, “NBA Debate: How Does Steve Nash Fit With Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and the Brooklyn Nets?”