The Brooklyn Nets announced Saturday they’ve decided to mutually part ways with head coach Kenny Atkinson after just three-plus years with the team.
Brooklyn owns a 28-34 record and over the last three-plus years, Atkinson has accumulated a 90-156 record during his tenure as the man in charge of the seventh-seeded team in this year’s playoff listing.
In what was one of the more jarring moves of the season, the Nets will now look to current assistant coach Jacque Vaughn to take over all head coaching responsibilities for the remainder of the 2019-2020 season. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke down the details on Atkinson’s departure, citing the sense that Nets General Manager Sean Marks and Atkinson were deep in several conversations pertaining his job status as head coach, and that a change was “inevitable”, with both sides agreeing that both sides decided that there was no sense on waiting until the end of the season to let Atkinson walk.
Both had felt that it was necessary to look in different directions, as the bonding of Atkinson and the Nets had “run its course” together.
Brooklyn was already on a tailspin losing five of their previous six games before Friday night’s win over San Antonio. During a season that wouldn’t see the return of the hampered Kyrie Irving, who just underwent successful arthroscopic shoulder surgery a week prior, Atkinson seemingly knew things were peeling off at the seams.
“You’ve got to get a little uncomfortable when you’re not doing well. I think that’s part of the philosophy. You’ve got to feel that,” Atkinson confessed to reporters Monday. “It’s great having days like this, two days in between, allows you to really practice and get things done.”
Other reports surrounding Atkinson’s exodus were that some players actually wanted him out of the building.
The process, as Nets fans and management probably felt, was to let this year go by, and by next year when new Brooklyn Net Kevin Durant gets fully healed, challenge for an NBA Finals berth in the tedious Eastern Conference next year with both Durant and Irving rejuvenated from the ailments that have kept them on the sidelines this season, all with Atkinson leading the charge.
His blue-collar identity was what got them to this point, as he’s been known to build playoff-ready rosters out of non-household name core pieces, especially during this season with players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, Garrett Temple, Jarrett Allen, and others. Now, Marks will be extemporaneously put to the test in finding a worthy enough suitor for a head coach to lead Brooklyn to the forefront of a tough and unforgiving conference in future seasons.
The 52-year-old native New Yorker was previously employed by the cross-borough rival New York Knicks as an assistant coach for four years (2008-2012) and then transferred to Atlanta to be their assistant coach for three years (2013-2016), before being hired by the Nets to become their head coach in April 2016. The team got to the postseason once, in Atkinson’s time with the team, and never advanced past the first round of the playoffs as they got bounced by the Philadelphia 76ers in last year’s race to the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Brooklyn still possesses a five-game advantage over Washington (23-39), the current ninth seed in the East, and should be good to reach the postseason for a second-straight year. As for their new interim head coach, Jacque Vaughn is a former NBA point guard who won a championship as a backup guard with the Spurs in 2007. He retired in 2009, and just like Tim Duncan today, became an assistant head coach under Gregg Popovich in 2010.
The 45-year-old University of Kansas export was previously employed by the Orlando Magic from 2012 to 2015, compiling a 58-158 record. He has been under Atkinson’s wing as an assistant since Atkinson’s hiring four years ago.
