The Nets briefly step off of the rake
A good decision to avoid more self-inflicted pain.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
Another Swerve in Brooklyn
It was weird that a week went by after reporters said the Nets’ hire of Ime Udoka was imminent without anything happening. Then on Wednesday, the Nets announced that acting head coach Jacque Vaughn would be the team’s permanent new head coach, with a deal through next season.
Shams Charania at The Athletic reports that the Nets made the decision after doing due diligence on Udoka’s situation in Boston and amid all the backlash. ($) The team also appears to be responding to Vaughn, which is not a surprise because the team responded to Vaughn the last time he was an interim head coach in the Bubble! Of course, that was mostly different players than these ones. He didn’t win games as head coach in Orlando, but he seems to be well-suited for the job.
And he seems to be pretty well-adjusted about … well, all of this drama.
Look: any team with a healthy Kevin Durant will win games. That’s why I slotted Nets as a question mark team in the middle of the playoff picture before the season. If Durant is here and playing, the Nets can beat anyone. It’s a very flawed team, especially if Kyrie Irving is out indefinitely. It’s not championship material as currently constructed. But a Kevin Durant squad it’s going to lose 50 games.
Brooklyn is 3-2 under Vaughn. That’s a lot better than what they were under Steve Nash this season!
Bits Up
Remember this ad?
Remember this arena renaming?
Well, uh … FTX appears on track for bankruptcy after billions of customer deposits appear to have been leveraged in other deals to make the CEO richer. Normal people who put their money on FTX can no longer make withdrawals, as I understand it. Or something like that. Like Steph, I am not a crypto expert. Unlike Steph and the legions of celebrity endorsers of various crypto products — especially FTX — I don’t get paid to tell people who do not fully comprehend crytpo to stick their savings in it.
The NBA, like many other American capital behemoths, has leaned into crypto because there is a lot of loose money floating around there. There was always a major downside risk partnering with individual companies in the space and overall. Here’s that risk realized. It could end up reflecting poorly on those celebrity endorsers like Steph, Tom Brady and freaking Larry David and corporate partners like the Heat. And tomorrow it could be Crypto.com, endorsed by LeBron and on the side of the Lakers and Clippers’ arena. No such thing as money for nothing. You take the crypto check, you might someday have to take the crypto reputational bruise.
Scores
Mavericks 87, Magic 94 — Luka’s 30-point streak ends as he shot 9/29 from the floor. Just a miserable offensive outing for Dallas. It happens.
Nuggets 122, Pacers 119 — Uncle Jeff has had some wildly athletic plays this season. He’s 36!
Jazz 125, Hawks 119 — At some point my running bit listing Lauri Markkanen as one of the best small forwards in the NBA is going to stop being a bit and start being a fact.
The Jazz are 10-3. They were the first team to hit 10 wins this season.
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