Another Brooklyn Nets head coach has come and gone. Jacque Vaughn was fired Monday after the Nets lost 136-86 to the Celtics. Nets GM Sean Marks has fired three coaches under his watch–Kenny Atkinson, Steve Nash, and now Vaughn.
This is laughable. Anytime a general manager fires three coaches in a row, he doesn’t get a chance at a fourth choice. Considering how impatient owners are, he is lucky to hire a second coach now. But Marks is Teflon under Nets owner Joe Tsai. He can do no wrong despite not elevating the Nets to a championship-winning basketball team. There has been plenty of more losing than winning under this current administration.
Yes, Marks gets credit for landing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, but he also gets the blame for the breakup of that trio. And in the latest rebuild, Marks has put together a roster that features so many players who don’t grasp the concept of playing winning basketball. They don’t defend and hoist ridiculous shots that do not go in.
Marks also thought Ben Simmons was a guy to build around despite evidence that that’s not the case. Simmons is an injury-prone player, and quite frankly, he’s not a good basketball player. His time with the Nets speaks for itself.
Marks should have been fired along with Vaughn. This was a time for the organization to reset with a fresh general manager and a new head coach. But then you wonder if Tsai really has any interest in going through interviews and the process of hiring a general manager. Remember, he never hired Marks. It was then-Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov who hired him.
Tsai would rather stick with someone he knows than hire one he doesn’t know, which is not how a team should be operated. I’ve always wondered if the Nets owner knows what he’s doing, and from what the result shows, he clearly doesn’t. Based on Marks’ awful track record, one would think Tsai would be the one who hired the next coach. Yet, now his general manager will get an opportunity to rectify another mistake.
Don’t bet on Mike Budenholzer, Mark Jackson, Jay Wright, Dwane Casey, Adrian Griffin, or Sam Mitchell to coach the Nets. Marks would rather hire a puppet to coach his team than hire a coach who knows what he’s doing. That is why firing Vaughn does nothing but make him the fall guy. The Nets don’t need another fall guy. They need a coach who knows how to win games.
I guess Kevin Ollie will be a coach for the remaining season, and if he does well enough, he’ll be a permanent coach. All he has to do is show he’s decent enough, which is a low bar for a franchise that likes to act like they’re the next coming of the Boston Celtics.
Marks has not drafted well and hasn’t made great trades, either. I am hard-pressed to figure out who has done well during his forgettable tenure. The Nets GM said all the right things about being accountable but stopped short of firing himself, so personal accountability means nothing.
Marks is lucky no one cares about the Nets. That way, he escapes blame and criticism from the media here. But at some point, a time will come when the public gets on his case.
The problem is that firing the head coach doesn’t change anything because the Nets’ roster is bereft of talent outside of Mikal Bridges, and even he hasn’t elevated the Nets since he was acquired from the Phoenix Suns for Durant. But firing Marks would give fans hope. At some point, Tsai must understand that this franchise can’t move forward until Marks is gone and then act on that belief.
How many more fall guys does Tsai need to realize that?
