The Brooklyn Nets Needed A New Head Coach So Sean Marks Called Up An Old Mate
The situation that the Brooklyn Nets find themselves in, the situation that it’s Sean Marks’ job to find a way out of, has been very well documented. That comes with the territory of the situation itself. A franchise that had maneuvered its way cleverly through a rebuild despite having minimal leverage in the matter (no draft picks, very few tradeable players, repeated losing records, nothing to entice free agents) got to the point where they had to take The Next Step. They were the plucky underdogs who took care of all the little details. The franchise that rehabilitated players’ careers, who found diamonds in the rough, a team-first organisation that worked their way into the playoffs despite the odds (albeit in the Eastern Conference).
But to get to The Next Step they had to incorporate a bit of star power, you don’t win in the NBA without it. In come Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving... as well as a spot of DeAndre Jordan... and suddenly the processes that had got them to this point were unfit for taking them any further and that culminated in the firing of Kenny Atkinson. That idea goes both ways. Durant and Irving bring that huge media attention and that squeezes all the pressure points in an organisation. The targets change, the margins for error shrink, the patience that they were able to have when they had nothing to lose disappears. Which is when certain bad habits in trainings come to the light and champions like KD and Kyrie are in a position to call those out. That’s a positive shake-up, less so is the deference that the team now has to have to keep its most valuable stars happy. It’s all very frisky... it’s also all been covered before.
The fascinating thing is what are they gonna do to get out of it. Caught between these two worlds, the past and the future, the team and the individuals, the plan and the process, the dream and the reality. They could just abandon the past and go all in on this new incarnation of the Brooklyn Nets... but that’d be a bit of a waste considering all the great work that went into it, work that drew the attentions of Durant and Irving in the first place. So how do you make the yin and the yang fit together in harmony?
Steve Nash! It was really sounding like Jacque Vaughn was cruising towards this gig, if not him then an Italian Job level caper to use Sean Marks’ San Antonio Spurs connections to bring in Gregg Popovich (which has never felt likely but we could at least dream). Steve Nash’s name came out of the blue. He’s not really been included in any head coaching chat before and there was little evidence that he was even thinking of a future as a coach. He’d done some consultancy type stuff, most notably with the Golden State Warriors where he formed a strong bond with Kevin Durant, but that’s the kind of job you take because it allows you to watch a heap of Premier League football, do all the charity stuff you want, maintain a few business interests, and still have time to have a personal life. But Sean Marks knows how to negotiate. Don’t let his hybrid kiwi accent fool you. He and owner Joey Tsai recruited Nash for multiple weeks and finally they got their man.
What does Steve Nash have to offer? He’s a Hall of Fame player with court-awareness and playmaking ability that ranks among the very best of all time. Someone who understands the game on an intense level. He’s also a top quality dude who can bring people together for a common cause and someone who communicates ideas really well, as he’s shown in his media work (more football than basketball, curiously). His pathway to this kind of job is an odd one but that means he comes to the job with an outsider’s point of view, room for improvisation.
Above all – and you really can’t overstate this given how the last coach’s reign ended – he’s got instant respect from Kevin Durant (and therefore Kyrie Irving too – I dunno, I might be wrong but I feel like KD is way more influential in these matters than Kyrie, who is difficult because he’s an iconoclastic weirdo individual rather than KD who is more about the structural stuff... like how he felt disrespected or unwelcome in the Warriors franchise his last season, you know?). Putting it simply, KD and Kyrie won’t have hand-picked their new coach themselves but there’s no way Steve Nash gets hired without their approval. KD in particular has raved about Nash in the past.
This is what Sean Marks specifically said in the press release: “After meeting with a number of highly accomplished coaching candidates from diverse backgrounds, we knew we had a difficult decision to make. In Steve we see a leader, communicator and mentor who will garner the respect of our players. I have had the privilege to know Steve for many years. One of the great on-court leaders in our game, I have witnessed firsthand his basketball acumen and selfless approach to prioritize team success. His instincts for the game, combined with an inherent ability to communicate with and unite players towards a common goal, will prepare us to compete at the highest levels of the league. We are excited to welcome Steve, Lilla, Lola, Bella, Matteo, Luca and Ruby to Brooklyn.”
As to the idea that he’s been hired with no experience, there’s a pretty common precedence here...
He won’t be doing this alone though. Jacque Vaughn has been re-hired and will apparently be the NBA’s highest paid assistant. That’s the way to do it – old mate might be a pretty enticing hire but he also hasn’t ever had to personally do the day in and day out of being a coach in the NBA... so you surround his inexperience with staff experience. You build a coaching team round him that offers the platform for him to come in and weave a bit of magic.
Time will tell as to how successful they’ll be. The best case scenario is Steve Kerr coming in without having been a head coach before and instantly taking the Golden State Warriors to the championship but that’s a bit much to expect. With a healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, alongside the excellent core of players they’ve amassed around them over the last few years (Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jarrett Allen, Joe Harris, etc.), there’s only so bad a team like that can possible be. They should be pushing close to 60 wins but even if there are teething issues they should still sleepwalk into the playoffs. However that also adds to the pressure on the team so it cuts both ways.
But what’s exciting about Steve Nash’s hiring is that in a sneaky way it feels like this move bridges the gap between those two incarnations of the Sean Marks Era Brooklyn Nets. It’s a brave and aggressive appointment, not too far removed from the kinds of moves that Marks was having to make in free agency early in his tenure with restricted free agents and the like. Steve Nash comes with the KD vote of approval but he’s also a well-liked guy capable of nurturing a team culture... which is exactly what people worried had been eroded by these big name free agency acquisitions.
Nash is a rare bloke who can instantly help recreate that environment but in a way that includes room for superstar egos. And you look at the trajectory of his playing career, Steve Nash is an incredibly hard worker who takes nothing for granted and pays attention to the details same as these Nets on the come-up under Kenny Atkinson. He’s also a multi-time MVP so he can speak to both ends of the roster and all points in between. Something that Sean Marks knows personally from having been his teammate on the Phoenix Suns back in the day... kinda crazy to think how much greatness Sean Marks has found himself adjacent to for a guy from Aotearoa who was the definition of a journeyman player. You keep a long enough contact list and there’s always someone to call upon when you need someone.
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