NBA

Newly fired Karl not a candidate for Nets

When the news came down yesterday the Nuggets had decided to part ways with reigning NBA Coach of the Year George Karl, a new name was thrown smack into the middle of the seemingly never-ending coaching carousel this spring.

And though the Nets have an opening, it doesn’t appear that Karl will be filling it. The team, according to a league source, doesn’t have much interest in Karl.

The biggest impact Karl’s newfound unemployment potentially has on the Nets opening is in increasing the competition for the top coaching candidates on the market. The Nuggets now rival the Nets and Clippers for the most desirable job on the market — having won 57 games last season before losing to the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs and boasting a deep pool of young, talented players on their roster.

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That said, the Nuggets have lost the NBA’s Executive and Coach of the Year in the past week. Masai Ujiri was lured away by a big pay raise from the Raptors before the team chose not to bring back Karl for the final year of his contract. Yahoo! Sports, which first reported the decision to let Karl go, cited Denver’s reluctance to give him a contract extension as the reason for the separation.

The Nets are set to meet with Pacers assistant Brian Shaw, and also could sit down with Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins at some point. Shaw and Hollins were considered to be leading candidates for the Clippers job and likely will draw interest from the Nuggets as well.