The Brooklyn Nets are reportedly looking at a number of head coaching candidates, including former head coach Jason Kidd. What could go wrong, right?
The Brooklyn Nets made huge news in early March when they fired head coach Kenny Atkinson out of nowhere. While perhaps it was a well-kept secret in NBA circles that something was coming, it was absolutely out of nowhere for all but the best-connected folks.
Assistant coach Jacques Vaughn took over on an interim basis, and the plan was to conduct a search for their next coach when the season came to an end. As we know now, the coronavirus had other plans and the end of the season currently remains in limbo, as does a formal search for the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
Marc Stein of the New York Times provided us some clarity on the situation Thursday afternoon:
Tyronn Lue, Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and the incumbent interim coach Jacque Vaughn are among the names on the Nets' developing list of coaching candidates, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) April 23, 2020
This is an interesting list for a variety of reasons. The Nets have almost certainly the most appealing job opening, as former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy recently stated. Tyronn Lue is an interesting candidate considering he and Nets’ star Kyrie Irving didn’t have the best relationship in their years together with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Mark Jackson remains the head coaching candidate who will perpetually come up in discussions about open jobs until one team inevitably bites the bullet and hires him.
Jeff Van Gundy has ties to the New York area, having coached the New York Knicks for years, but Jason Kidd is the name with area ties that deserves the most scrutiny on this list.
Kidd is a known commodity around these parts. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago when Jason Kidd was the head coach of the Nets. In the aftermath of a failed coup for total front office control of the Nets in 2014, he found himself vanquished to the Milwaukee Bucks where he usurped their head coaching job from Larry Drew.
Jason Kidd is a Hall of Famer whose jersey hangs in the rafters at Barclays Center, and in spite of his well-deserved reputation as a coach killer with excessive ambition, he remains respected throughout the NBA. He parlayed that into an assistant coaching job with the Los Angeles Lakers on Frank Vogel’s staff, but it’s safe to say his ambitions of upward mobility will know no end.
Of course, Kidd’s attempted takeover occurred under the ownership of Mikhail Prokhorov, not current owner Joseph Tsai. Billy King was the Nets’ general manager at the time, not Sean Marks. In many ways, that team of 2014 was a completely different team, and this is one of those situations where hiring a head coach your stars like and respect probably means more than anything else.
Kidd will likely appeal to Irving and Kevin Durant in ways that Atkinson did not, and that goes a long way. Still, it could be a rough look to bring back a virtual mutineer just six years after he failed in his efforts and was forced to leave town with his tail between his legs.