Coach Vaughn and the new-look Nets aren’t interested in talking about last year

By Christopher Heine

Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has sported a bushy, long beard since last season that would make Rick Rubin nod in approval. If Vaughn’s look reflects a guru mentality, he’ll need it in the coming months, coaching up a young team that’s promising but still a work in progress. The coach’s beard is back in action Wednesday night, as the Nets open their season versus the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Barclays Center.

“We’ll go into that game with a mindset that we need to have all season,” Vaughn says. “That if we play extremely hard and we bring the fight to teams like the Cavs that come into our arena, then we’ll have a chance to win those games on a nightly basis.”

At a recent visit to the NBA team’s Industry City practice facility — which offers a panoramic view of Manhattan and the New York Harbor — Vaughn remains philosophical when asked a bottom-line question on the minds of Nets fans right now: Is Brooklyn a playoff team again this year?

“I’m still learning about this group,” says the 48-year-old, entering his second season as the Nets head coach and his sixth season overall running an NBA team. Last year, the team entered the Eastern Conference playoffs as the sixth seed. This year, Las Vegas odds and pundits have the Nets as a borderline playoff team that could push for seventh or eighth seed.

“I’m not at a position right now where I know how good this team is going to be,” Vaughn says. “But I’m going to push them to get the most out of them.”

The 2023-2024 Nets are dramatically different than the franchise at the start of last season when the roster included future Hall of Famers Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. The season prior, they had a third future Hall of Famer in James Harden — together, they were known as the “Big Three,” placing the Nets among the top favorites to win an NBA Championship. But discontent drove all three players to demand and get trades within 12 months.

According to Durant, the main problem was not enough playing time together. Their inability to get on the floor at the same time was, at first, caused by Irving’s refusal to comply with New York’s Covid vaccination mandate in 2021-2022. But Harden and Durant were also regularly sidelined with nagging injuries until the former got traded to Philadelphia in February 2022. A year later — within a week of one another — Irving was shipped to the Dallas Mavericks and Durant to the Phoenix Suns. The official end to the “Big Three” was a tough moment for the Nets.

“I don’t bring up last year unless others do,” Vaughn says. “That’s been my approach with this group.”

With the “Big Three” completely in the rearview mirror, the Nets road ahead will hinge on the development of a potential star in small forward Mikal Bridges and their veteran point guard, Ben Simmons, who is searching for a comeback season. Simmons has been battling mental health, knee and back issues in recent years but has been reportedly playing in preseason camp near the level that once made him a ​three-time NBA All-Star. Another intriguing Nets player heading into this season is Cam Thomas, who got Nets fans excited last February when, at age 21, he became the youngest player in NBA history to notch three consecutive 40-point games. But for the rest of last season, he didn’t play nearly as much — which puzzled some Brooklyn fans.

Indeed, there is no shortage of storylines — or questions — about the Nets at the onset of the 2023 season. So Brooklyn Magazine sat down with Vaughn, or “JV,” as they call him across the Nets organization, to discuss the upcoming season.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Courtesy Brooklyn Nets

What’s going to surprise fans this season?
How likable this team is. A team that you’re going to root for because these guys play hard. They’ll cheer for each other. When our fans are watching a concept of team basketball that’ll kind of permeate with this group, I think Brooklyn will really grab a hold of that.

With the superstars gone, can Bridges and Simmons become an elite duo?
Well, the challenge is for those two to try to bring their games to the next level. That next level is [dealing with] the opponent’s scouting report, where they are the No. 1 or No. 2 defensive priorities on a nightly basis. They gotta figure out how to deal with it, and to me, that’s all about their growth. A lot of guys in their career won’t be put in that position, and there’s a mental component to it. It’s just not a physical component. Now, we don’t want to leave those two out there by themselves and say, “You produce, and we don’t have your back.” But for them to take the next step as players, they have to succeed after being put in that position — being the opponents’ focal point — over and over again.

So, it’s all about consistency and accountability in the leader’s role.
It’s a tough thing to do in this league. You have to have the emotional qualities to deal with it, and other teammates are hanging on to your emotions and your reactions, too.

Speaking of emotions, Cam Thomas’ 2022-2023 season was a roller-coaster ride. He played a ton, scored a ton and then wasn’t seen nearly as much. Going into his third NBA season, what will his role look like?
Yeah, second-year players are often still learning how to consistently be a professional athlete on a daily basis. Cam has made tremendous strides [this offseason]. Now, the challenge of a third-year player is, do you do the things on a nightly basis to keep garnering that playing time? Just because you had a great offseason, doesn’t guarantee you minutes. Just because you played one year, doesn’t guarantee you to play the next year.

Last year was a big disappointment. Are there worries in the franchise that there’s going to be a hangover from all of that?
I’m really trying to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m extremely excited to coach. I’m going to keep diving into them. And unless someone else mentions previous years, I won’t. That’ll be my job.

Your job has been in Brooklyn since coming here as an assistant coach in 2016. What are some of the things you like to do around the borough?
I walk to the games, and I walk home. So, that is a peaceful joy of mine — I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that. I’m a podcast listener, so you’ll definitely see me walking around Prospect Park with my earphones on, trying to get some knowledge and taking in the sounds of the city. I just love the energy and the juice of Brooklyn and how it changes on a daily basis.