Boston Celtics: NY Post predicts Nets will lose another gamble with Ime Udoka hire
The NY Post doesn’t have faith in one of its hometown teams after its most recent head coaching switch. NY Post reporter Ian O’Connor believes that the Nets hiring the formerly suspended Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka will be yet another gamble that Brooklyn will lose.
According to O’Connor, Udoka will be another in a long line of failures on the Nets front office since Sean Marks abandoned most of its lovable underdog from the 2018-19 season in July 2019 with the signings of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
O’Connor took shots at Irving and the two players (James Harden, Ben Simmons) Marks acquired in a blockbuster deal both of the past two seasons while not even making mention of the lack of success in the Steve Nash hire in September 2020. Turns out a former player with no head coaching experience a playing history against the team’s two polarizing star players was not a recipe for success.
Here was the NY Post roast of the Udoka hire, along with the aforementioned acquisitions over the past three years:
"“The Nets have gambled before with a lot of people, starting with Kevin Durant’s chosen sidekick, Irving, who wasn’t happy playing with one of the two greatest NBA players of all time (LeBron James), or playing for one of the two greatest NBA franchises of all time (the Celtics). They gambled on a coach with no experience, Nash, and on James Harden and Ben Simmons, two stars who, along with Irving, reconfigured the definition of “high maintenance.” The Nets lost all of those gambles.”“Chances are they would lose this one, too. They are trying to clean up their own mess by borrowing from someone else’s mess, never a good idea.”"
Ime Udoka could defy odds with Nets after nearly perfect first season coaching Boston Celtics
You don’t hear much about the potential on-court ramifications of the Nets bringing back Ime Udoka as a head coach after he served as an assistant under former Brooklyn HC Steve Nash — at least besides Skip Bayless’ ringing Udoka endorsement.
If Udoka can get a motivated Kyrie Irving on the defensive end, with Kevin Durant, Royce O’Neal, Nic Claxton, and Ben Simmons beside him, there is a high probability for a legitimate turnaround for the Nets’ sorest spot.
Should that happen, there’s a chance Brooklyn would be back in their rightful role of contender, as just about every sportsbook expected them to be the past two years during the preseason. Then the gamble would pay off.