After firing Jacque Vaughn, the Brooklyn Nets face a familiar challenge،
EXACTLY ONE YEAR After his tumultuous three-and-a-half-year tenure with the Brooklyn Nets ended, Kyrie Irving returned to the Barclays Center.
It was February 6, and Irving was in town with the Dallas Mavericks, less than a week after his former Nets running mate, Kevin Durant, made her returning to the city where the duo envisioned winning NBA titles. Instead, a team that failed to meet championship aspirations was replaced by a team fighting for play-in position in the Eastern Conference.
“When you trade franchise players and things are mixed up, it's going to be different,” Irving said after the Mavericks' 119-107 victory, the rematch of Dallas' seven-game winning streak. “It’s going to be different.
“Some of the best players in the world played on this field. … But now it's time to start from scratch and it's not the same pressure.
Instead of an NBA superteam of Irving, Durant and James Harden, Brooklyn looks more like what Sean Marks inherited when he was introduced as the franchise's general manager in February 2016.
Then Brooklyn was on the verge of missing the playoffs and didn't have control of their next three first-round picks. This season's group seems destined to meet a similar fate.
The Nets are 11th in the conference at 21-34 with less than two months remaining in the regular season. And, despite the picks obtained in the Irving and Durant deals, they do not control their next four first round pick.
Monday – the eighth anniversary of his hiring – Marks left the coaching job for the third time in his tenure as general manager, firing Jacque Vaughn after the team's collapse over the past two months resulted in a loss 50 points against Boston. Celtics right before the All-Star break.
“It’s about the level of competition,” Marks said earlier this week, discussing his decision to move on from Vaughn. “We're not going to be the most talented team in the league. I'm not an idiot. I totally understand that. But at the same time, this is a talented group of young men.
“Those are things to expect when you're in the situation we're in right now, where we're striving to fight for everything we can. That's what I hope to see over these 28 next matches…
“And it’s probably, to be honest, some things I haven’t seen.”
Brooklyn hopes to see such changes under interim coach Kevin Ollie, although Thursday's blowout defeat in its debut did little to slow the team's recent struggles.
Whether the Nets are mobilizing to secure the final playing spot in the East doesn't change the fact that, just like when Marks took over, Brooklyn finds itself banking on its future — not its present — to his salvation.
BROOKLYN WAS 15-15 YEARS OLD and battling for the top seed at the bottom of the East bracket when it hosted the Milwaukee Bucks on December 27, the second night of a row.
With a busy schedule due in part to the team's impending trip to Paris to face the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn opted to sit out five players for the entire game due to various injuries, and three others – Mikal Bridges, Cam Thomas and Royce O'Neale. — for the last three quarters.
After the game, Bridges expressed his displeasure with the decision, while Vaughn pushed back on the idea that the Nets had treated the game as an exhibition.
“I have too much respect for guys who dress up and put their bodies on the line, and the level of competition, to even say the word [exhibition]”, Vaughn told reporters after the 22-point loss. The Nets were fined $100,000 for violating the league's new player participation policy.
Since then, for Brooklyn, things have been going badly. The Nets are 6-18 since that loss, a slide that ultimately led to Vaughn's firing on Monday.
Only the Washington Wizards have a worse record since Dec. 27 than the Nets, who have been 25th in offensive efficiency and 22nd in defensive efficiency over that span – one of five teams to rank in the bottom 10 on both ends, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
Brooklyn followed that game against Milwaukee by losing four more in a row. And in booking their trip to Paris, the Nets blew a double-digit lead to lose in overtime at home to the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers.
At home against the rival New York Knicks on January 23, Brooklyn let a double-digit lead slip away in the second half. The loss was compounded by Knicks fans turning the arena into a de facto Madison Square Garden.
“You could hear the crowd,” Bridges said after the game. “It was like a screwed game when they made their run.” Bridges then played the podcast of his former Villanova teammates, Knicks guards Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, and they discussed the noise from Knicks fans that night.
The point of no return for Vaughn, however, became the 50-point loss to the Celtics to conclude the pre-All-Star schedule, after which Bridges spoke at length about the team's series of offensive struggles.
“We learned what we do,” Bridges told reporters in Boston. “We have to come as a team, as coaches and come up with a game plan. It can't be the same for everyone.”
This challenge now falls to Ollie. But the biggest challenge continues to fall to Marks, who will get another chance to build a title contender in Brooklyn.
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Nets GM: Player effort level played role in Jacque Vaughn firing
Nets general manager Sean Marks explains some of the factors that led the organization to move on from coach Jacque Vaughn.
MARKS PASSED HIS plus first two seasons in Brooklyn positioning the franchise to go star hunting in the 2019 offseason, creating enough cap space to pair Durant with Irving. Now, after trading both All-Stars last February, Marks is trying to replicate that type of pursuit.
The Nets only signed Bridges, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith beyond the 2024-25 season, which could give the franchise up to $70 million in salary cap space to chase free agents – a summer class of 2025 that could include stars Donovan Mitchell, Brandon Ingram, Rudy Gobert, Lauri Markkanen and Jimmy Butler.
The Nets also still have Bridges, an All-Star-caliber wing with a contract ($23.3 million next season and $24.9 million in 2025-26) who is universally regarded by scouts and opposing executives as one of the best in the league.
Brooklyn has resisted offers to trade him, league sources told ESPN, and the franchise views him as a foundational player for the future, both for his play and his ability to serve as an agency scout. free. Bridges, for his part, has made it clear he has no interest in pursuing a trade.
“One hundred percent,” Bridges said Tuesday, when asked if he was confident in the franchise. “Things aren't going well right now, and that's life. … I know a lot of people might be thinking about different situations and teams, and obviously I sent my boys down there to New York and everything, so obviously everyone is going.
“But I've never been the type of guy to [want to leave when] Things are getting tough and it’s time to scream and get out.”
For all the buzz generated in recent seasons in Brooklyn — in part by the failed Durant-Irving-Harden superteam — it ultimately didn't lead to many wins.
In their first three years in Brooklyn, the Nets won just one playoff series and a total of 10 playoff games. Since Marks took over midway through the franchise's fourth season in Brooklyn, his playoff win total has been one series and a total of eight playoff games.
But after years of shuffling, both on the court and off the sidelines, Marks — who said his phone was “ringing for 48 hours” with coaches wanting to come to Brooklyn after Vaughn was fired — is convinced the Nets have players to climb. return to contender status.
“We have shown our ability to put this franchise at the top of the map,” Marks said, “and this is our plan to do it again.”