After waiting several weeks for his season to end, the Nets are set to speak with Brian Shaw.
The Nets formally requested — and were granted permission — to speak with Shaw about their coaching vacancy, according to a Yahoo! Sports report.
Shaw, who spent the past two seasons as the associate head coach of the Pacers, has been widely regarded as one of the NBA’s top assistant coaches for some time. His stock has only heightened in the wake of several other assistants getting tapped for head coaching jobs this offseason.
Shaw’s agent, Jerome Stanley, declined to comment on the matter to The Post when reached by phone, but he told ESPN Los Angeles several teams have reached out to the Pacers about his client’s services.
“The season has ended and now he plans to speak to a few teams about potential opportunities to be a head coach,” Stanley told the website. “He will not be commenting on anything to do with this process, or the specific teams involved.”
In addition to the Nets, Shaw also is expected to interview with at least the Clippers, the only other job available that rivals the potential of taking over the Nets.
Shaw played under three Hall of Fame coaches during his career — Phil Jackson, whom he later spent several seasons coaching under, Pat Riley and Larry Brown, whom he played for briefly in 1998 while current Nets general manager Billy King also was in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, the Nets can’t talk to Lionel Hollins about their coaching vacancy — at least not yet.
When the Nets asked Memphis to speak to Hollins about their opening, their request was denied, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The request came on May 28, the day after Memphis saw its season end in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals.
Hollins’ agent, Warren LeGarie, was unavailable for comment.
It’s unclear why Memphis would have denied the Nets the opportunity to speak to Hollins, who remains under contract through June 30, when he’ll become a free agent if he doesn’t come to an agreement on a new contract with the Grizzlies. Multiple outlets reported that Memphis had, in fact, granted permission to the Clippers — who, ironically, were eliminated by Memphis in the first round of the playoffs — to speak with Hollins about their opening.
In the wake of Memphis’ loss to San Antonio, Hollins repeatedly said that his goal was to remain there after seeing the Grizzlies improve their winning percentage in each of the previous four seasons with him in charge, including winning a franchise-record 56 games this year and advancing to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history.
But after talks broke down over the weekend, Hollins went on a Memphis radio show Monday and expressed his disappointment at the way the process had played out.
“I thought everything was good,” Hollins said. “I was excited when I left. … The next thing I know, I’ve been given permission to talk to other teams.
“People need to know from my perspective that I don’t want to talk to any other teams. I want to be here. I told the media after our exit interviews that, if the team offered me a contract that I felt was fair, I’d sign it the next day.”
In a further twist in the story, Hollins was at the Grizzlies’ draft workouts Wednesday in Memphis.