The Brooklyn Nets have fired coach Jacque Vaughn after a 21-33 start to the season, the team announced Monday. Vaughn has coached the Nets for 129 games in this current stint, leading the team to a 64-65 record.
Entering the All-Star break, the Nets sit in 11th place in the East at 21-33. They rank 21st in points scored and 16th in points allowed per game.
A former Nets assistant coach, Vaughn was promoted to interim head coach on Nov. 1, 2022, after the team parted ways with Steve Nash. He was named the permanent coach about a week later, then signed a multiyear contract extension on Feb. 21, 2023.
In that Nov. 1 and Feb. 21 stretch, Vaughn guided the Nets to the fifth-best record in the league, including a 12-1 record in December 2022. But by the end of the season, the team traded away All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, pivoting to a rebuilding period built around newly acquired forward Mikal Bridges.
Vaughn previously coached the Nets for 10 games as interim head coach in 2020 following Kenny Atkinson’s midseason departure.
This marks the second February firing of Vaughn’s career, as he was relieved of duties by the Orlando Magic on Feb. 5, 2015. Vaughn had coached Orlando for the two years prior, garnering a 58-158 record.
Vaughn got his coaching start with the San Antonio Spurs, joining Gregg Popovich’s staff in 2010 as an assistant coach. Vaughn finished his playing career with the Spurs in 2009, closing a 12-year career that previously featured stops with the Utah Jazz, Atlanta Hawks, Magic and Nets.
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
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