Brooklyn Nets are in the middle of a weird franchise flux right now. They recently fired their head coach Lionel Hollins and removed Billy King from his duties of general manager. With Hollins out, Tony Brown took over the reigns as the interim head coach and the front office is being run by assistant general manager, Frank Zanin.
They’ve been rumored to want the services of John Calipari but his number to come to the NBA might be too high, even for the Nets Russian billionaire owner, Mikhail Prokhorov.
But the Nets need direction and they need to have a form of identity if they do hope to pull in some big name talent. To get big name talent, you need to have some big names in your organization and it appears Brooklyn is looking at a trio of people to fill two jobs.
Following from ESPN’s Marc Stein & Mike Mazzeo.
Former Toronto Raptors and Phoenix Suns general manager Bryan Colangelo is getting strong consideration for the Brooklyn Nets’ front office vacancy, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that the two-time former NBA Executive of the Year is high on the Nets’ list of potential targets to succeed Billy King, who was reassigned Sunday after a 5 1/2-year tenure marked by modest success and record-setting spending.
But sources say Colangelo has quickly emerged as a serious candidate should the Nets go the route of hiring a proven NBA executive to succeed King and then pursue one of the top of available coaches, such as Tom Thibodeau or Mark Jackson.
The Nets, sources say, have been drawn to Colangelo because of his strong track record in building contenders in both Phoenix and Toronto as well as his varied experiences over more than two decades in the league.
Bryan Colangelo, Mark Jackson and Tom Thibodeau all ended tenures with their respective teams despite having winning records at the helm of each position.
Before Masai Ujiri took over, the Raptors made the playoffs two out of the first three years with Colangelo as general manager and Colangelo also won the executive of the year award in 2007. He did have some misses with the Rudy Gay trade, drafting Andrea Bargnani and signing Jason Kapono and Landry Fields to long-term deals and the end of his tenure with the team wasn’t exactly great considering the Raptors missed the playoffs five years in a row.
Mark Jackson and Tom Thibodeau both won as head coaches for the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls, respectively. Jackson has a career 121-109 record as an NBA head coach, getting to the playoffs two season in a row. Thibodeau has a 255-139 record as an NBA head coach and in his time with the Bulls he made the playoffs every season he was their head coach. He also won the NBA Coach of the Year award in 2011 while also coaching the NBA MVP, Derrick Rose.
Do the Nets have a chance with any of these guys? It is possible but do they want to get a guy in Colangelo that’s similar to Billy King as a person who is willing to make a big risk but hasn’t reaped any rewards? Will they take an option on either one of the bull-headed coaches in Mark Jackson or Tom Thibodeau to run a team led by soft-spoken stars in Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young? It’s going to be interesting to see where they go.
