Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov may be suffering from delusions of grandeur, but nevertheless, he’s shooting for the stars when it comes to filling the recent management vacancies that have opened up on his team.
According to a report by Mitch Lawrence of Sporting News NBA on Wednesday, the Nets have reached out to former Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau about their head coaching job.
The Nets have reached out to Tom Thibodeau about coming to Brooklyn to coach their team, per NBA sources.
— Mitch Lawrence (@Mitch_Lawrence) January 13, 2016
This comes on the heels of the news that Brooklyn is also strongly considering respected executive Jerry Colangelo for their GM position. They recently cleaned house, firing head coach Lionel Hollins and general manager Billy King over the weekend.
Thibodeau, 57, served as the Bulls head coach from 2010 to his firing in 2015. He also won an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics as an assistant on Doc Rivers’ staff in 2008.
He is well-regarded as one of the best defensive minds in the Association. Thibodeau’s “overload the strong side” schemes deserve a lot of credit for revolutionizing the way team defense is played today. But he overstayed his welcome in Chicago, butting heads with the front office, running his players into the ground, resisting modern resources, and losing the support of the locker room before an incredibly ugly breakup.
The Nets, who rank 21st in defensive efficiency this season per ESPN, could really use a defense-first head honcho like Thibs though. They don’t really have very many high-upside defensive pieces on their roster other than rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, but Thibodeau has been known in his days to whip average to below-average defenders into shape.
There’s no indication yet that the interest is mutual. But the Nets, who have also been linked to Kentucky head coach John Calipari, are definitely making it clear that they’re going big or going home in an attempt to right the ship of what has become one of the NBA’s sorriest franchises.
H/T Rotoworld
