The Brooklyn Nets have been struggling to start the new NBA season, as they’ve won just two of their first eight games and are struggling mightily on the defensive end.
Apparently, the organization decided that enough is enough, as it fired head coach Steve Nash on Tuesday and replaced him with Jacque Vaughn, who had been an assistant under Nash.
This is a move that some had suggested Brooklyn make, and a few even saw this coming for a while.
But the question is whether the Nets were right to dismiss Nash.
It’s one thing to get rid of a bad or underachieving coach, but unless his team replaces him with someone better, nothing will really change or improve in the long run.
The hot rumor is that Ime Udoka, who was the head coach of the Boston Celtics last season before being suspended, will soon replace Nash.
However, regardless of who replaces Nash, there seemed to be a red flag with him, and he admitted it to team executive Sean Marks when he said his players weren’t responding to him.
Sean Marks reveals what Steve Nash told him last night: “They’re not responding to me”
(Via @alanhahn) pic.twitter.com/29b1otyQRO
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) November 1, 2022
Change Was Needed
It is bad enough if a coach lacks the acumen to get his team to succeed on one or both ends of the floor, but if he has lost the locker room or cannot get his players to respond to his leadership, that by itself could be a reason to fire him.
But the red flags go back a while, as it was reported a few months ago that there was tension between Nash and Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, as the Nets’ two stars reportedly didn’t think Nash had what it took to coach them to an NBA championship.
#NBA There is some known tension between #Nets players and their coach Steve Nash. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Cam Thomas all have some kind of tension with Nash #NBATwitter
“They don’t believe he has what it takes to take them all the way”— per league source pic.twitter.com/v5vGOgBLaG
— SportsBuzz (@SportsBuzz07) July 19, 2022
A couple of years ago, when Nash was first hired, Irving and Durant said that the team didn’t “have a head coach,” which was alarming enough at the time.
Kyrie Irving AND Kevin Durant both say the Nets don't 'have a head coach' and 'anyone of them' can be one including Jacque Vaughn.
This is going to be SO much fun. I mean, not for Steve Nash, but for everyone else.
— Jason Smith (@howaboutafresca) October 2, 2020
Nash is generally known as a great and likable man, but someone like him who had no head coaching experience, nor the strong personality to keep big egos such as Irving, Durant and Ben Simmons in line, shouldn’t be coaching a team like the Nets.
If Brooklyn hires the right man for the job, it could take off and make some noise the rest of the way, as it still has one of the league’s best rosters on paper.
NEXT: The Nets May Have Already Found Their Next Head Coach
