Brooklyn Nets plan to hire Ime Udoka as next head coach. Why?
The Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Steve Nash Tuesday morning amid his 2-5 start to the 2022-23 season. It’s not surprising since he was likely going to take the fall on the sword — regardless of if it was his own undoing or not — if Brooklyn started poorly, which they did. And it appears they already have sights on a new head coach: Ime Udoka, per The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.
Udoka, who was hired for the same position by the Boston Celtics ahead of the 2021-22 season, was suspended by the team for the season after an improper relationship with a team employee.
Firing Nash to then hire a suspended Udoka would be morally reprehensible, on multiple planes, but that’s just my two cents.
He went 51-31 with the Celtics last season and established himself as one of the best head coaches in the league, on paper. But this an incredibly tough look for an organization that’s already had gas poured on the fire over the last several weeks/months, to then just hire Udoka.
How much gas does Brooklyn have? Why even think about adding suspended head coach, who clearly committed a vehement act that warranted suspending him for a year (!?!?!?!), to an already fractured culture? Sure, we don’t know the entire story of what happened behind the scenes with Udoka (yet), but the subsequent details that have been released since the original story aren’t good at all! He just got a few weeks off and now has a new job? What are we doing here?
What’s the line? Miles Bridges? Joshua Primo? Seriously, what’s the line?
The Nets have precedent with trades and head coaches. They traded now-Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for two second-round picks ahead of the 2014-15 season. At the time, Kidd was coming off a 44-38 season with Brooklyn after Milwaukee finished an NBA-worst 15-67. Who knows what it would take to acquire Udoka, but the Nets would have to be in a terrible spot to consider it.
The other candidate that ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski already mentioned was Quin Snyder, who was fired by the Jazz after last season. He would have been a *much* safer option to help fix whatever is wrong with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons and the rest of the Nets. The end of his Jazz tenure was unceremonious, but he went 372-264 in eight seasons as head coach, including six playoff appearances. And you wouldn’t have to part any picks for him. Why not stick with Jacque Vaughn?
Brooklyn’s decision is a shameless act that can’t really be defended.
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