Nets, coach Kenny Atkinson agree to part ways

Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks said repeatedly Saturday afternoon that the decision to part ways with coach Kenny Atkinson a few hours earlier had come after multiple conversations between the two of them over the direction of the team, and over Atkinson's ability to influence it.

"I would have loved Kenny to be here long-term," Marks said in a news conference at the team's Brooklyn practice facility. "I think we all have ideas that this is going to last forever, and we'll keep building this together. We had a great run for four years. We enjoyed each other, I think we grew immensely. He grew as a coach, hopefully I've grown as a GM and so forth. We made plenty of mistakes, and we had fun along the way.

"These are the the circumstances. The position we find ourselves in now is, 'What helps us get it to the next level?' And I think what we debated and what we deliberated on was this was a time where the team needs another voice, and that's where we are at."

That voice won't be Atkinson's, who leaves with a record of 118-190, having taken over a team with a deficit of draft picks and little present-day talent in 2016 and helping develop a roster that sprouted players like Joe Harris and Spencer Dinwiddie off the scrap heap and young talent like Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen, while leading the Nets to a playoff berth last season.

The culture the Nets created, and the winning the team did without star talent last year, was credited as big factors in why Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving agreed to come to Brooklyn last summer as free agents. Their acquisitions took the Nets from a plucky feel-good story to a team seen as having potential championship aspirations when Durant returns from his rehab for a torn Achilles tendon next season.

But Atkinson will now never get a chance to coach Durant at all, and spent only 20 games coaching Irving before shoulder issues derailed his season -- issues that led to season-ending surgery Irving had on Tuesday. Marks repeatedly was asked what led to this decision taking place, and -- without getting into specifics -- said he and Atkinson agreed that a different direction was needed, despite Atkinson never getting the chance to coach the stars the team brought in last summer.

"I think, whether that's the unfortunate business, line of work that we're in, I can't comment on whether he could've or would've or should've [gotten the chance to coach them]," Marks said. "I would've loved to see him coach those guys. There's no question of that.

"But the situation and circumstances of where we are today is we're trying to take this program from where we are now to another level, and we've agreed, along with ownership, that a change was necessary at this time to do that."

When Marks was repeatedly asked for specific reasons why it was agreed a change needed to be made, however, he declined to offer them.

"I think what happens in the locker room, I would like to think, stays in there," Marks said. "I would like to get specific and granular on all different types of things. But, at the end of the day, this is a compromise that both Kenny and I and ownership came up with. I think I said before, it was time. Kenny grinded and did everything he could. But it was time for another voice in that locker room, and it's our job now to find it."

Atkinson's exit came as a surprise to many across the league Saturday, particularly on the heels of a win over the San Antonio Spurs in Brooklyn on Friday night, and with most thinking Atkinson had maximized as much as he possibly could from a roster that not only was missing Durant and Irving, but also LeVert and others for chunks of the season.

But the one thing that Marks was willing to give specifics on was how much the players -- and, specifically, Irving and Durant -- were involved in the decision to move on from Atkinson. He was asked on several occasions if they, or the other players, had input into the decision, and said that it was borne out of conversations between the two of them.

"The same way all 17 players factored into it," Marks said, when asked if Irving and Durant played a part in Atkinson's dismissal. "I just got done talking with them now and updating them."

When asked if, had they spoke up for him, would Atkinson have remained in his job, Marks said, "This is a decision that wasn't even about Kevin, Kyrie, Caris, Joe, Spencer, Jarrett Allen. This was a decision between Kenny, myself and ownership came up with, and the players were all told this morning ahead of the release."

Marks gave no indication of a timeline into when the Nets would make a decision on Atkinson's replacement beyond reinforcing that Jacque Vaughn, who previously was the head coach of the Orlando Magic for three seasons and had been Atkinson's top assistant, will be the coach for the remainder of the regular season.

"We're going to let the season unfold as it does," Marks said. "Jacque is the head coach right now. Let's let these 20 games play out, and let the momentum hopefully build and we'll go into the playoffs and go from there."

He also insisted that the Nets, who are in seventh place in the Eastern Conference and five games ahead of the Washington Wizards in ninth place with 20 games to play, are going to remain committed to trying to make the playoffs.

As part of a trade last summer, the Nets will send their pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves if they make the playoffs, and will keep it if they miss them.

"Absolutely," he said, when asked if the goal remains to make the playoffs. "100 percent. I couldn't answer more clearly than that."