NBA Rumors: Kevin Ollie 'Leader' to Be Nets' Interim HC; Contract Talks Have Started

Brooklyn Nets assistant coach Kevin Ollie is reportedly the "leader" to be named the team's interim head coach after Jacque Vaughn's firing on Monday and the two sides have held preliminary discussions, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski added that Ollie and the Nets are "expected to talk more today" about him potentially taking on the role.

Vaughn, 49, was fired after the Nets limped into the All-Star Break with a 21-33 record. He went 71-68 overall in parts of three seasons with the team—he also served as the interim head coach in the 2019-20 season after Kenny Atkinson was fired—and led the Nets to a pair of playoff berths, though the team went 0-8 in those appearances.

"This was an incredibly difficult decision, but one we feel is in the best interest of the team going forward," Nets general manager Sean Marks said in a statement. "Jacque has represented this organization with exemplary character and class for the past eight years."

Ollie, 51, most famously served as UConn's head coach between the 2012-13 and 2017-18 seasons, leading the Huskies to a 127-79 record, a national championship in the 2013-14 season and a pair of NCAA tournament berths.

He was fired in 2018 with cause and without compensation for allegedly violating NCAA rules, setting off a series of legal battles that eventually resulted in Ollie being awarded $15 million in a pair of rulings.

After a stint in Overtime Elite as the head of coaching and basketball development between 2021-23, he joined the Nets on Vaughn's staff for the 2023-24 campaign.

Brooklyn currently finds itself 2.5 games out of 10th place in the Eastern Conference, the final berth for the Play-In Tournament.

It's a long way from the hype that surrounded the team when Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden were briefly together, and the current Nets find themselves loaded with one very good player (Mikal Bridges), one very expensive but rarely healthy player in Ben Simmons—who has generally underachieved when actually on the court—and series of role players behind them.

The Nets have a bevy of future picks to add more star power come the summer, though without some creative salary cutting won't have much cash to lure free agents. A lot of money will come off the books ahead of the 2025-26 season, however, and a soft rebuild in the interim could leave the team positioned to be players in free agency at that point.

But for the time being, figuring out the next head coach is the priority. For at least the rest of the regular season, Ollie appears to be the frontrunner.