Brooklyn Nets New Coach
By Rebecca Rodriguez - March 20, 2023

The Brooklyn Nets removed the interim label from assistant coach Jacque Vaughn’s title just hours before a nationally broadcast clash against the New York Knicks to establish stability or a stable shoulder to rely on. They won’t be held accountable for the Ime Udoka hiring, which seemed likely a week ago, and this has caused a breath of relief. The Nets now have a head coach in Jacque Vaughn, who, like Udoka, started as an assistant in the NBA. If anything, the selection of Vaughn gives them the much-needed favorable press.

Vaughn has some experience getting back on track after setbacks; he missed a league-record 22 consecutive shots to open the regular season in 2001. He finished that season with a 47 percent field goal percentage, a career-high in the end. With Brooklyn off to a 2-5 start, Vaughn will need that tenacity to navigate them away from the sharp rocks. The Nets’ downward trend appears to have slowed since his promotion. Therefore, his course modification has been influential in the short term. Thus, there is even more justification for continuing the positive energy.

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The reason why superstars are rarely successful coaches can be summed up by Vaughn’s capacity to navigate failure. While he was still playing, Vaughn was a heady, no-frills backup point guard. He will need that experience and familiarity with the locker room from his time as a Nets assistant since 2016 if he wants to communicate with Kyrie Irving in a way that Steve Nash was unable to. Nash was the coach Durant approved of after growing to know him when Nash was the Warriors’ player development consultant, but over the summer, he made Nash the victim.

Vaughn will be in dire need of his former experience in trying NBA situations. Vaughn is the tenacious professional who scraped their way through the mud to earn this chance on a superstar-laden team. After working for the Spurs for two seasons before assuming the position of head coach for the Orlando Magic, Vaughn, like Udoka, can also boast an advanced coaching certification from the School of Gregg Popovich. It was a death trap when he got his debut NBA head coaching job. Nobody has triumphed in Orlando since he was fired after three seasons.