Well, that didn’t take long. Just a few days after trading away Jason Kidd to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Brooklyn Nets have now hired Lionel Hollins to become their new head coach. The deal is reported to be for four years and around $18 million.
When you talk about Lionel Hollins, there aren’t really many bad things to say. Some still question why he was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies the year after he took them to the Western Conference Finals. The thing about Hollins is that he a defensive-minded coach. And unlike most NBA teams, he likes to play big. We saw that in Memphis with the tendency to play both Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph at the same time. He plays big, which makes his teams play a grind it out style of offense. Under Hollins, Memphis was always one of the top defensive teams in the league. They made the opposing teams work for every single basket, which made them successful. I’m eager to see how this will work out in Brooklyn.
For the Nets, I think this is a great hiring. Lionel Hollins excels at coaching the point guard and center positions, and those are the most important positions on the Nets. With Deron Williams playing point guard and Brook Lopez playing center, they’re the leaders of the team. Also, with Hollins there, the players will actually listen to him. Jason Kidd was in his first year out of retirement, so players felt he wasn’t really sure what he was talking about. This hiring is big for Kevin Garnett. Hollins will have a veteran player to help the younger guys, and Hollins and Garnett could have a great relationship. He would also work well with Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce, but it is still not known if Pierce will be returning.
This is a new step for the Nets. It seemed as if Brooklyn would be on the decline, but now they’re going uphill. They won’t win a championship, but the team will get along better, and Lionel Hollins will be respected.
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