The Brooklyn Nets have an opening at head coach after dismissing Jacque Vaughn on Monday. Following a 13-10 start to the season, the Nets have lost 23 of their last 31 games, dropping them to 11th in the Eastern Conference.
Brooklyn is expected to hire an interim head coach in the near future. With the NBA's second-easiest remaining strength of schedule, here are three candidates to take over for the Nets as they attempt to make a playoff push.
Adam Caporn
Caporn is one of four assistants on the Nets' staff with head-coaching experience, having served as head coach of Brooklyn's G-League affiliate, the Long Island Nets, for the 2021-22 season. He was hired as an assistant in Brooklyn in 2022 before being promoted to director of player development ahead of this season.
Caporn has experience coaching on the international level as an assistant for the Australian National team alongside fellow Nets assistant Will Weaver. The 41-year-old was a candidate for several head-coaching openings in Australia's National Basketball League before opting to join Long Island and then Brooklyn.
Will Weaver
Weaver is in his second stint with Brooklyn. He served as a top assistant under Kenny Atkinson from 2016 to 2018 before being named head coach of the Long Island Nets in 2018-19. In his lone season with Long Island, he led the team to a conference final victory and was awarded NBA G League Coach of the Year.
Weaver left Long Island to coach the Sydney Kings in 2019 and was the runner-up for National Basketball League Coach of the Year after leading the team to a league-best 20-8 record. After his short stint in Australia, he was a finalist for the Oklahoma City Thunder head coaching job in 2020 before the team hired Mark Daigneault. He was also strongly considered for the New Orleans Pelicans opening before the team hired Stan Van Gundy.
Weaver served as an assistant for the Houston Rockets from 2020-2022 before accepting a head coaching job in France for a season and re-joining Brooklyn as an assistant this year.
Kevin Ollie
Ollie spent six years as head coach at UConn from 2012 to 2018, winning a national championship in 2014 and finishing with a 127-79 record. He joined the Nets staff as an assistant this season after spending the last two years as head of coaching and basketball development at Overtime Elite.
Numerous Nets players have commented on Ollie's skills as a motivator.
“The coaches were pissed off and so were we after that Charlotte [loss] and let it be known,” Mikal Bridges said in December. “Coming in the next day… They just had us all locked in and [Coach Ollie], that’s just how he is as a coach, too. He’s really forceful at getting you motivated and ready for the game, so we definitely needed it.”
The veteran coach has garnered respect in Brooklyn's locker room during his short time with the organization.
“He’s a guy that’s played at the highest level who has won championships,” Spencer Dinwiddie, who has since moved on to the Los Angeles Lakers, said early in the year. “Sometimes you just need that other voice, that kind of stern voice. Everybody has an uncle that might be on him a little bit tougher than his pops, right? You kind of tune out your pops sometimes, right? But your uncle steps in and keeps you on track. So I think it’s kind of that vibe.”
Nets assistant Kevin Ollie gave the team an inspired speech before the Orlando win. Here's Spencer Dinwiddie on what Ollie has brought to the team:
"He’s a guy that’s played at the highest level who has won championships… Sometimes you just you need that other voice, that kind… pic.twitter.com/eMTM6nfnez
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) December 5, 2023
The Nets will need to act soon on their interim coaching hire after Sean Marks revealed his reasoning for firing Vaughn. Brooklyn will return from the All-Star break for a road matchup with the Toronto Raptors on Thursday.
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