Instead of contending for the NBA championship, as most expected them to do, the Brooklyn Nets got swept out of the first round of the 2022 National Basketball Association playoffs by the Boston Celtics.
Now, the post-mortems on the Nets are ongoing, and many are speculating on what went wrong and what they need to do to fix their issues and finally reach their immense potential.
Some feel that head coach Steve Nash is not the right man for the job and that he needs to be replaced by someone who would represent an upgrade.
If that is true, who would be that upgrade who could guide the Nets to at least the Eastern Conference Finals next season?
Among the realistic options, there is a man whose team also just got eliminated from the first round who could do better than Nash.
Should The Nets Go After Quin Snyder?
Snyder, the head coach of the Utah Jazz, has done a pretty good job taking them from the basement of the NBA to a perennial playoff team since taking over the helm for the 2014-15 season.
Last season, the Jazz went from good to very good, finishing with the best record in pro basketball and posting the third-best offensive rating and fourth-best defensive rating in the league.
This season, Utah improved to first in offensive rating.
Snyder has developed a reputation as a hard-nosed coach who demands that his players give a sincere effort on the defensive end, something that would go over well in Brooklyn.
Defense has been perhaps the Nets’ biggest weakness the past two seasons.
They were just 19th in defensive efficiency this year, and last year they were even worse, finishing 23rd in that category.
There are rumors that Snyder could move on from the Jazz this offseason, and if he does, there should be at least a few teams that will be interested in his services.
Snyder Isn’t Perfect
One knock on Snyder is that his teams have fallen a bit short of expectations in the playoffs.
Last year was the first time the Jazz were considered any type of championship contender, yet they fell in the second round of the playoffs to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The loss was particularly frustrating, as Utah jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, only to lose the next four contests, even when Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard missed the last two games of the series.
This year, the Jazz finished just fifth despite sporting almost the same roster as last season, and they faced the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the postseason.
Even though Luka Doncic missed the first three games of the series, the Jazz lost two of those contests and ended up dropping the series in six.
Still, at least Snyder has plenty of NBA head coaching experience and some success in that capacity, which couldn’t have been said about Nash when he took the job prior to the 2020-21 season.
Whoever the Nets hire should they decide to move on from Nash needs to have experience, the right abilities when it comes to being a tactician and strong leadership skills.
Kyrie Irving isn’t exactly easy to coach, but the right coach could get him to commit to the team, rather than to his individual agenda, and that would be a big step in the right direction.
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