The Brooklyn Nets have fired head coach Steve Nash (officially billed as a mutual parting of ways) and are progressing towards hiring Ime Udoka as their head coach.
Udoka is still, technically, a Celtics employee, but the team is not pursuing compensation from the Nets to hire him away. According to multiple reports, Udoka could officially join the Nets within the next couple of days.
Karalis’ Take:
The first question that has come up in the aftermath of this rapidly unfolding story is why the Celtics wouldn’t squeeze the Nets, a division rival and a potential roadblock on Boston’s path to the Finals, for at least some compensation to hire someone who is technically still an employee.
My first reaction was the same, but it seems the Celtics see this as an opportunity to unburden themselves of Udoka without any messy entanglements.
Should the Celtics have decided to demand compensation, it could have been perceived as a signal that they have at least some intention of keeping him around. The whole notion behind compensation is that Boston has someone they value, therefore they need to be paid to allow that person to go.
The Celtics have been very careful about how they’ve handled this situation and how they are moving forward with Joe Mazzulla. It seems like they don’t want any mixed messages about where they stand, so they're not even going to bluff when it comes to their intentions in order to extract an asset from Brooklyn.
That's a mistake in my opinion because Brooklyn is very clearly desperate, and in this cutthroat business of professional sports, teams are supposed to feast on desperation. This is like putting a couch out in the driveway and having someone come up to your door saying he desperately needs one. Why not ask for some cash for it, even if you were willing to give it away for free? That's drinking money, buddy.
The Celtics could have used whatever draft compensation they got as part of a deal later this season or in the summer. Any additional assets you can put in your warchest should be snatched up, because you never know when they’ll come in handy.
So that's a missed opportunity, but Udoka’s departure is probably very welcome news around the Auerbach Center. The Celtics are no longer on the hook for any of Udoka’s salary, which they're certainly happy about. And should the Celtics find themselves struggling at all, there's not going to be any talk about “hey, maybe they can just pull Udoka off suspension?” talk as a distraction. They are committed to Mazzulla and want to make that work, so this is just another step in attempting to do so.
Udoka, meanwhile, was only out of work for about a month. He’s walking into a franchise where his scandal is probably fourth or fifth in line for headlines in New York. He inherits a franchise in disarray, a point guard in Kyrie Irving who unapologetically promoted antisemitic material, a superstar in Kevin Durant who tried desperately to leave over the summer, a third “star” in Ben Simmons who is trying to find his way back after a long absence with minimal success.
This is a desperate franchise that is last in the league defensively and first in the league in egos. Udoka is a no-nonsense guy who is unafraid to call out his stars. He’s worked with these guys before, so he has a head start in the relationship building, but he wasn’t their head coach before. This will be different.
The Celtics are content to wave goodbye to Udoka without getting anything back for him, and the Nets are willing to take him and all the baggage that comes with the hire. Both teams seem content with making this move quickly and painlessly.
