Well, you can forget Monty Williams, Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Brown, who are all, for one reason or another, out of the running for the Nets head coaching vacancy. So that really only leaves one choice, right? Fred Kerber believes Avery Johnson will be the next head coach, and though there is no final offer.
But several sources insist that Johnson has been and remains the leading choice — and that there were additional conversations with Thorn this week.
I have to be honest, while I like the choice of Johnson, I’ve been underwhelmed by Thorn’s coaching search process-wise, and I hope this isn’t a sign to how he’s going to test the free agent market. From what I can gather, his outreach to Tom Thibodeau, a guy I really wanted to bring in here, was limited to periphery phone calls. I don’t even think he ever met with Monty Williams, who many consider the best assistant coach in the NBA. JVG clearly had no interest here, and I think we dodged a bullet with Mike Brown taking himself out of the running. So it leaves really the only guy they’ve formally interviewed according to published reports. What was this talk about “five or six guys” and a “surprise.” If pretending for half a day you’re going to wait for the Finals to end to interview Phil Jackson is a “surprise,” then I must be getting cynical in my old age. One can only hope that while Thorn contemplates his next move, Avery isn’t scooped up elsewhere.
