Scott Skiles
For what it’s worth, Dave D’Alessandro of the Newark Star-Ledger, says that Scott Skiles is the “frontrunner” for the Brooklyn Nets head coach job.
It should be pointed out that there have been tons and tons of names mentioned as being in the mix, and Billy King has let it be known that he plans on conducting a thorough search.
Brian Shaw and David Joerger are assistant coaches for the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, respectively. Both have been mentioned as potential candidates, but neither is expected to be granted permission to interview for the gig until their seasons are over.
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The NBA Draft is upon us and will be held at Barclays Center on June 27.
The Brooklyn Nets are hosting a two-day draft combine this week, on Wednesday and Thursday. The Nets will invite 44 draft-eligible players to showcase their skills and talents to representatives from all 30 NBA teams.
Below is the full release…
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David Joerger (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
If there is a free agent coach on the market, odds are, he has been rumored to be “in the mix,” for an interview to lead the Brooklyn Nets. That shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise, though, since general manager Billy King said that the franchise would leave no stone unturned.
With news coming out of Boston that Doc Rivers will be with the Boston Celtics next season, there is at least one less name on the list.
And while “free agent” coaches have been rumored to be in the mix, we’ve even heard the likes of Lionel Hollins mentioned as a potential target. And now, it seems as though some Nets fans have taken a special liking to one of Hollins’ assistants, Dave Joerger.
Not that such a thing would actually have any sway on an NBA front office, but at the very least, it’s pretty funny. A group that refers to themselves as “Nets Fans Against Mediocrity” has taken to change.org to create a petition imploring King to go out and get Joerger.
Like Brian Shaw, Joerger is an assistant on a staff that’s still involved in the playoffs, so any official interview would have to wait until the Grizzlies have been ousted.
Still, this brings a whole new meaning to fan involvement, would you say?
Check out the petition
Read Dave Joerger’s biography on NBA.com
Writing for BrooklynNets.com, Ben Couch wrote a feature on Brook Lopez.
This past season, Lopez turned in a very solid season, earning his first All-Star berth and earning recognition as being one of the top young centers in the NBA. He emerged as the most consistent force on the 49-win Nets and discussed his progress this season with Couch.
From BrooklynNets.com
The well-rounded offensive game and improved shot-blocking helped Lopez earn his first All-Star appearance, having been named an Eastern Conference reserve in Houston. He last participated in All-Star Weekend during his sophomore season (2009-10), when he was invited to play in the Rising Stars Challenge for a second consecutive year. The NBA has yet to announce this season’s All-NBA performers, and it is difficult to imagine others will claim all three center spots on the honorary teams. But gaining league-wide recognition no longer drives Lopez.
“I think the next level has to be team-oriented,” Lopez says. “It’s not really personal – there’s not much left personally. It’s just a matter of winning. That’s the bottom line. I think that really separates the best of the best in the league from the rest.”
Josh Newman, SNYNets.com
Scratch Doc Rivers from the Nets’ head coaching search.
The Boston Celtics’ head coach will return to oversee what is expected to be a reshuffling of the roster, President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge told the Boston Globe on Thursday afternoon at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
“Yeah (he’ll be back), Doc and I are talking about our team next year,” Ainge said. “(No suspense) from my perspective. We’ve got a great coach. We’ve got a coach everybody would love to have and he’s got three years left on his contract and I think Doc likes Boston, too.Coaches get tired, though. It’s a hard job.”
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Writing for ESPN New York, Mike Mazzeo cites Lopez’s potential improvement as one reason to be excited about the future of the Nets.
Per Mazzeo:
Lopez finished fifth in Player Efficiency Rating — behind LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony – and made his first All-Star team. Plus he played in his first playoffs and put up solid stats — 22.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. So much for all that concern about his defense and rebounding after he played just five games in 2011-12. But Lopez was outplayed byJoakim Noah in the elimination Game 7, so King hopes that pain adds fuel to Lopez’s fire for next season. Lopez is only 25, so it’s possible he can be even better in 2013-14. That would certainly be big for the Nets.
Mazzeo also points to the new head coach (more on that later) and Deron Williams improved health as two causes for optimism.
Read the entire piece: Three reasons to be optimistic about Nets
John Paolantonio, SNYNets.com
Nets GM Billy King sat down with Ben Couch of brooklynnets.com recently for an interview that encompassed everything from the move to Brooklyn, the current coaching situation, the roster as it stands and what he can do to upgrade it.
King started the interview speaking about the expectations the Nets had and if he thought they lived up to them.
“We all had expectations and I think we exceeded them. I think the fan base was great. I think the building was great and I thought our players played up to it. We won 49 games and had some exciting games in the building but I thought we could have went a little further. That leaves a bit of an anxious taste in my mouth of wanting to get back to work and to get back there because I think we left our fans wanting more and we wanted more.”
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NEW YORK, May 14, 2013 — The Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, the unanimous selection for the 2012-13 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, headlines the 2012-13 NBA All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today.
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By Derrel Johnson
NEW YORK — As the NBA coaching vacancies pile up around the league and we see assistant coach’s names pop up on team’s radars, it is worth once again asking a question that Moke Hamilton asked a while ago.
Patrick Ewing
Should the Nets give Patrick Ewing a call?
Ewing has been wondering the same thing, and it sounds like he is hoping for it.
Patrick Ewing is one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, had his jersey retired by the New York Knicks, which now hangs in Madison Square Garden. He has also been an assistant coach in the NBA over the better part of the last decade, holding gigs for the Orlando Magic and Houston Rockets, where he coached under Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Van Gundy, respectively.
That begs the question, why won’t the Brooklyn Nets, or any other team for that matter, hire Ewing as head coach?
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From Tim Bontemps of the New York Post
…Because the Nets are so far over the salary cap, they only have the ability to sign one player for more than a minimum salary, which they can do by using the “mini” mid-level exception, which starts at $3.183 million next season.
Since Bogdanovic was taken with the first pick of the second round back in 2011, the 24-year-old small forward isn’t held to any kind of traditional salary scale like first-round picks, allowing him to sign for whatever a team is willing to pay him.
And while Bogdanovic does have an NBA out in his contract this season, it comes with a buyout – one that Bogdanovic himself has said is in the neighborhood of $2 million – that he’ll have to negotiate with his Turkish club, Fenerbahce. The Nets can contribute up to $575,000 under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, but that still leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.4 million for him to pay out to Fenerbahce.
Bontemps also goes on to discuss how the signing could affect the team on the court, as well as the fact that Billy King’s 2013-14 roster is already running out of spots. It’s definitely worth a read.
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