The Brooklyn Nets continue to lose a lot of games and at this point their playoff hopes are basically at zero. In a season when they don't control their first round pick the Nets need to make the playoffs to avoid giving the Boston Celtics a very good lottery pick but it doesn't look like that will happen. Somebody has to pay for this poor season and it looks like that person will likely be head coach Lionel Hollins, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.
Lowe was talking to Brian Windhorst on his podcast the Lowe Post when he said it was all but certain that Hollins would be canned at some point. The question now is when the Nets will fire him, will it be during the season or will they wait for the season to end. When Lowe said that Hollins is assuredly a goner Windhorst did not disagree.
Hollins has been on the hot seat all season as the Nets got off to a bad start and things have not gotten much better. To be fair to Hollins this Nets team does not have a lot of talent and they just lost their starting point guard, Jarrett Jack, for the season but he has not done himself any favors. Hollins feuded with his best player, Brook Lopez, last season and has misused him this season. He also underachieved with a more talented team last year and barely squeaked into the playoffs, so while he can't be fully blamed for how bad his tenure in Brooklyn has gone he has to shoulder some of it.
Hollins is still under contract with Brooklyn for two more seasons but only one of those seasons is guaranteed. If the Nets decide to fire him during the current season they will have to eat the rest of this year's salary and next year's salary. Another issue with firing Hollins now, besides the money, is the lack of continuity the Nets have had recently. Hollins was the fourth different coach for the Nets in four years so firing him would make it a fifth coach in five years and it is impossible for a team to be successful when the coach changes that much.
Hollins isn't the only one on the hot seat in Brooklyn though as it seems Mikhail Prokhorov will not renew general manager Billy King's contract after this season either. There are already rumors about who might replace King next season but his tenure with the Nets seems to be coming to a close after he made several risky moves that didn't work out. Whatever way you look at it, it looks like a lot of change is coming for the Brooklyn Nets this offseason, both on the court and off the court.
