Steve Nash had no announcements regarding his coaching staff at his introductory press conference as the Brooklyn Nets’ new head coach on Wednesday.
To this point, Jacque Vaughn’s status with the team is the only one that’s been addressed — he’s Nash’s lead assistant. However, there is a chance Vaughn could be on the move if the right head coaching opportunity comes along. (There are vacancies in Chicago, Indiana, New Orleans, Oklahoma City and Philadelphia.)
On the same day the Nets announced Nash’s hiring, it was reported the Hall of Fame point guard wanted to get former Dallas Mavericks teammate Dirk Nowitzki to Brooklyn, but that isn’t going to happen, per Marc Stein of the New York Times.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Nets “are pursuing multiple assistant candidates.” Charania also specifically mentioned Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy as someone of interest for Brooklyn.
Handy was an assistant coach on Nick Nurse’s staff when the Toronto Raptors won the 2019 NBA Finals. He was also an assistant in Cleveland when the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Finals.
Four of Handy’s years in Cleveland were spent alongside Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving. As Handy expressed to Brian Lewis of the New York Post back in March, the two are very close:
Off the court, we spent a lot of time together. We were neighbors. We lived two or three doors from each other, so it was a lot of growing and maturing.