Brooklyn Nets appoint Kevin Ollie as interim head coach. Who is he?

With the Brooklyn Nets currently sitting on a record of 21-33 which is good enough for 11th in the Eastern Conference, it would be safe to say that the former NBA player has been thrust into a less than ideal situation as the team’s interim coach.

Kevin Ollie inherits a mess in Brooklyn

As you would have seen in our previous report, the Brooklyn Nets dismissed Jacque Vaughn from his head coaching role on Monday morning. The franchise is now back in the headlines, having named Kevin Ollie as the team’s interim coach according to ESPN. Currently out of the top 10 in the Eastern Conference, it goes without saying that this is not a good time for such changes. On the other hand, with reports indicating that players had lost confidence in Vaughn, could it have gone any other way?

So, who is the man who will take the Nets through the remaining 28 games of the season? Someone with experience, albeit not as a head coach in the NBA. Indeed, Ollie actually played in the NBA for 13 seasons with a variety of teams before stepping into coaching. Where the latter is concerned, he previously held the head coaching job at the University of Connecticut, before taking on the role of head of head of coaching and player development at Overtime Elite. Where his time with the Nets is concerned, it actually hasn’t been that long. Indeed, it was just ahead of the 2023-24 season that he joined Vaughn’s staff. Incidentally, Ollie was considered for the Detroit Pistons head coaching job before the franchise decided to go with Monty Williams. As for his first game in charge, that will come on Thursday night when the Nets take on the Toronto Raptors.

What happened to Jacque Vaughn?

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Let’s take a moment to reflect on the situation that Vaughn came into. Following a stint as interim coach after Kenny Atkinson was fired in 2020, Vaughn kept his place on staff under Atkinson’s replacement, Steve Nash. When Nash himself was shown the door last season, it was once again Vaughn who was called upon to serve as interim coach. Yes, it’s true that the Nets quickly removed the ‘interim’ tag, but it wasn’t long before things started to go astray.

By mid-season, Kyrie Irving’s contract extension talks faltered and it wasn’t long before he was on his way to the Dallas Mavericks. That blow was promptly followed by Kevin Durant’s departure: The former MVP was traded to the Phoenix Suns. As you can imagine, the loss of two All-Stars was too much and with that, the descent began. There was hope after a very decent 13-10 start to the season, but they’ve gone 8-23 since then, which brings us back to the present situation, which isn’t good. Is Ollie the man to take them forward? Who’s to say, but given how things have gone up to this point, it can’t hurt to try.