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The Brooklyn Nets did the unthinkable, hiring Boston Celtics suspended head coach Ime Udoka to be their new leader just a couple of months after the news that he was having an affair with a Boston team staffer broke. So why would the Nets want anything to do with Udoka, who was suspended for the entire season by the Celtics, after this embarrassing ordeal?
As it turns out, they have their convictions for the move. Here's why the Nets moved to hire Ime Udoka after firing Steve Nash, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
“The Nets have been vetting the circumstances around Udoka's suspension and believe that he can tighten up the league's 29th-ranked defensive team and command leadership in a difficult locker room, sources said. Udoka spent a season with Ben Simmons — a player the Nets are desperately trying to get on track — on the Philadelphia 76ers' coaching staff in 2019-2020.”
Per Wojnarowski, the Nets feel that Ime Udoka can help shore up their shoddy defense, which ranks 29th out of 30 NBA teams. Not only that, but Udoka, who was regarded as a straight shooter with the Celtics, is being brought in to lead the Nets' “difficult locker room.”
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Perhaps most of all, the Ben Simmons factor. Udoka is familiar with Simmons, having spent a season with him as an assistant coach in Philadelphia.
Simmons has often looked lost in the early part of the 2022 season- and the Nets need him to get back to the promising player he once seemed to be.
Yes, Ime Udoka did something that is almost unforgivable by some. Yes, he embarrassed the Celtics organization. But the Nets, underachieving and overwhelmed by distractions, need someone to right the ship.
Udoka proved he had a steady hand in that regard last year.
