Nets name Jacque Vaughn new head coach

Jacque Vaughn (far right) (Cheryl Harrison, Wikimedia Commons)

According to the Associated Press on Wednesday, the Brooklyn Nets have named Jacque Vaughn of Los Angeles, California as their new head coach. Vaughn takes over from Steve Nash of Victoria, British Columbia, who was fired last Tuesday. 

Vaughn was initially named the interim head coach when Nash was let go. On Wednesday, the Nets took the “interim” label off of Vaughn’s job title and gave him the position.

There had been wide speculation that the Nets were going to hire Ime Udoka of Portland, Oregon as their new head coach. Udoka is currently suspended by the Boston Celtics for inappropriate conduct with a female employee last season. The fact that the Nets were even considering Udoka was a surprise because it did not look good from an optics perspective that they were going to hire him while he was suspended by another team.

Now Vaughn will have a difficult challenge in trying to accomplish something Nash failed to do. That is to build team chemistry in an organization that has been struggling to gel in recent years.

After 12 games so far, the Nets have a record of five wins and seven losses. The team only has one of their big three stars in the lineup regularly. That is Kevin Durant of Washington, D.C., who its averaging 30.8 points per game. Kyrie Irving has been suspended for posting a link of antisemitism on his Twitter account, while Ben Simmons is seeing limited minutes at this time because of a knee injury. Both Irving and Simmons are Australian natives, as they were both born in Melbourne.

Vaughn has prior head coaching experience. He was with the Orlando Magic from 2012 to 2015. There he posted a record of 58 wins and 158 losses. Vaughn was also the Nets interim head coach in 2019-20, and had a record of seven wind and three losses.

In Vaughn’s first game as a head coach with the Nets without the interim tag, Brooklyn clobbered the New York Knicks 112-85. It was a great game for Durant, who had a triple double. He had 29 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.

Was Vaughn the right man for the job? Should the Nets have taken a chance on Udoka? Tell us what you think in the comments below.