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After less than 2 years on the job, the Nets have decided to fire Jacque Vaghn. The Nets fell to the Celtics last Wednesday by 50 points, which was the worst loss in franchise history. Brooklyn is currently 21-34 and currently sitting as the 11th seed in the East. If the season ended today, they would not even make the play in tournament.
After the Nets fired Vaughn, they promoted assistant Kevin Ollie to interim HC. Ollie played in the NBA for 13 seasons and also coached UCONN from 2012-2018 and won a title in his second season at his alma mater. Last offseason, he was the favorite to land the Pistons job, but they hired Monty Williams instead.
Vaughn became the team's head coach early last season after they terminated Steve Nash. After the Nets had an impressive start under Vaughn, they permanently made him the head coach and removed the interim tag. However, after the Nets traded superstars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in last year's deadline, they went from the the third to the sixth seed in the East. In the beginning of the season, the Nets started 13-10, but have regressed and are 8-24 since December.
The Nets were hoping for more from players such as Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton. However, they have not taken the next step and are leaning why too much on Mikal Bridges. Bridges is now playing more than what most superstars play and he is not even an All-Star. The Nets also don't really have the luxury to trade for a superstar or close to one with not having very many picks since the James Harden trade. They were able to get some pieces from the Durant, Irving and Harden trade. But not enough as most of their picks belong to Houston. A winning culture helps players be attracted to teams, but Brooklyn does not quite have that especially after all the drama from the Durant, Irving and Harden short lived era.
Vaughn has been with the Nets since 2016 as an assistant. Before that, he was the head coach of the Magic and also a scout for the Spurs. When Atkinson was fired halfway through the 2020 season, Vagh took over as interim head coach. The next season the Nets hired Steve Nash, but Vaughn remained on the staff as an assistant. A year and half later, Nash was fired and once again Vaughn was promoted to interim head coach. The Nets removed the tag and gave Vaughn an undisclosed contract extension. Although it was very short-lived as a year later, they terminated Vaugh as well.
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The Nets, Bucks and Wizards have already fired their head coaches this season and more will likely be made in the coming months. For the remainder of the season, the Nets will have Kevin Ollie in front of the team's bench.
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