On Monday night, Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn led the team to their ninth straight win with a 125-117 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That pushed the team to 22-12 and third place in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn now only trails the conference-leading Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Nets were led by All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who both dropped 32 points on the Cavaliers. Every point was needed as Cleveland’s Darius Garland went off, scoring 46 in a losing effort.
Durant and Irving are now all smiles after a turbulent start to the season.
In the offseason, both appeared to be on their way out of Brooklyn before the parties finally reconciled.
Then came Kyrie’s well-documented incident involving a controversial documentary.
To top it off, the Nets were the cellar dwellers of the East.
Ultimately, Kyrie was suspended and, with the team sitting at 2-5, head coach Steve Nash was fired and assistant coach Jacque Vaughn was elevated to the team’s acting head coach.
Aside from keeping Durant and Irving, promoting Vaughn to head coach has been Brooklyn’s best decision to date.
The former NBA player has opened the offense up, and Brooklyn’s two superstars have responded in kind. Durant is averaging 30 ppg, his highest since the 2013-14 season when he won NBA MVP as a member of the OKC Thunder. And Kyrie, since returning from his eight-game suspension, looks reinvigorated, averaging a better-than-career average of 26 ppg.
Now everyone is raving once again about Brooklyn, yet where is the praise for coach Vaughn?
Under Vaughn, the Nets have gone 20-7 and are challenging for conference supremacy. More importantly, the cloud of drama that plagued the team for so long has evaporated, allowing Brooklyn the chance to breathe, replenish and flex their star talent.
That type of change deserves recognition and appreciation.
When the Nets were sitting at 2-5, General Manager Sean Marks could see that the team needed “a leader” as the players hadn’t “bought in” to what Nash was selling.
“We’re looking for somebody to have poise, charisma, accountability,” said Marks after parting ways with Nash. “We’re not playing up to our expectations of where we should be. So, you hope this new coach can come in here and put this group in the best possible place to succeed.”
That somebody was already sitting on the bench.
Vaughn has nine years of experience as an assistant coach, including seven with the Nets. He also spent three years as the Orlando Magic’s head coach during a disastrous rebuild.
Yet he was overlooked by the Nets. First, they hired Nash. After firing him, Brooklyn targeted former Celtics head coach, Ime Udoka.
In the end, Vaughn was elevated to the position and the move has paid immediate and immense dividends.
He has brought experience, leadership and stability to the Nets. And his two biggest areas of focus, accountability and analytics, are resonating with the team, according to the Daily News’ Kristian Winfield.
Using video and statistics, Vaughn has shown players where they need to be and where they’re failing to be.
“When I’m able to hold myself accountable and Jacque’s able to hold me accountable and my teammates are able to hold me accountable, then it makes it easier for us to hold each other accountable by doing the little things,” said Kyrie. “These are things that we have to do every night to win.”
Holding players accountable has elevated the team’s level of play. It’s also changed the attitudes of the players, especially that of 12x All-Star, Kevin Durant.
“He’s (Jacque Vaughn) been huge. Just keeping it simple. We have high expectations for our team, but the process is more important than the end result,” said Durant. “As a player, you like to simplify the game and what you’re doing and that’s what he’s been doing this whole time.”
Being a former player is an advantage for Vaughn as he understands what works and doesn’t work, especially during a game. While he and Nash share that in common, Nash didn’t have coaching experience before he was hired, which contributed to his downfall.
Vaughn not only has coaching experience, but he also knows what it’s like to lose, and he has obviously learned from his disappointing time in Orlando.
One of the biggest lessons he learned was the value of communication, something Nash failed to fathom.
“We didn’t have that previously,” said Vaughn. “So that communication part, whether it was a clip guys wanted to see at halftime that we talked through, I think that’s where the trust is growing: to be able to communicate, to be able to ask questions, have a little psychological safety where you can ask and not be reprimanded and we try to figure this thing out together.”
Vaughn and his team are figuring it out as one, and the results prove it.
The Brooklyn Nets are finally living up to the hype and it’s attributable to their head coach.
So let’s give Jacque Vaughn his props.
