When the Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Steve Nash on Tuesday, the immediate question was who would replace him.
For now, assistant coach Jacque Vaughn will serve as their interim head coach, but given their immense talent and potential, they need a permanent coach who can get the most out of their players.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said that Brooklyn is hot on the trail of Ime Udoka and that both sides will come to an agreement very soon.
Suspended Celtics coach Ime Udoka has emerged as the likely next Brooklyn Nets head coach and his hiring could be finalized as soon as the next 24-to-48 hours, sources tell ESPN. Celtics will let him leave for another job.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 1, 2022
A Shocking Candidate
Udoka was hired to be the head coach of the Boston Celtics last season following nine seasons as an assistant, mostly with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Celtics started the year 18-21 despite the presence of stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but Udoka got them back on track, and they became the NBA’s hottest team during the second half of the schedule.
They rode that momentum all the way to the NBA Finals, where they came within two wins of their 18th world championship.
Boston had considerably less talent on paper than the Golden State Warriors, the team it lost to in the championship series, but Udoka was able to get it to become greater than the sum of its parts.
In Brooklyn, he would inherit a team with more talent than the Celtics that has grossly underachieved as of late.
However, with two massive offensive stars in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, plus a versatile but enigmatic prospect in Ben Simmons, the Nets have sky-high potential.
Their biggest bugaboo has been the defensive end, and perhaps Udoka could remake them into a team that defends at a high level on a consistent basis.
NEXT: The Nets Might Be Thinking Of A Major Trade