MILWAUKEE — That didn’t take long.
As Jason Kidd was being introduced as the head coach of the Bucks on Wednesday morning, the Nets were putting the finishing touches on the contract of his replacement, Lionel Hollins.
“I want to thank the Nets ownership and [general manager Billy King] for this opportunity,” Hollins said in a statement released by the team Wednesday afternoon to announce his hiring. “It has been a long process to get back into the league, and I believe that Billy and I will have a very successful working relationship.
“Brooklyn has firmly established itself as a franchise that is committed to winning, and I eagerly look forward to becoming part of that culture and building on the success of the past two playoff appearances.”
King didn’t interview any other candidates, and had meetings with Hollins on Monday and Tuesday with assistant general managers Bobby Marks and Frank Zanin. The hiring comes just two days after the Nets agreed to receive a pair of second-round draft picks to allow Kidd to get out of the final three years of his contract. Hollins likely will make more than the $2.5 million Kidd made in his lone season in Brooklyn.
Now King can move forward in free agency knowing who his head coach is, and he and Hollins can work together on constructing a roster that fits the way they want the team to play.
“We are very excited to welcome Lionel as the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets,” King said in the statement. “He is a proven winner who will provide the franchise with stability and leadership going forward.”
This will be Hollins’ fourth turn as a head coach, with all three of his previous coaching jobs coming with the Grizzlies. After two brief interim stops with the Grizzlies — in the 1999-2000 season and the other in 2004-05 — Hollins was named the head coach in Memphis in January 2009 after Marc Iavaroni was fired.
Hollins went on to lead the Grizzlies for the next four-plus years, increasing the team’s winning percentage each season and eventually leading the Grizzlies to three straight playoff trips, including a 56-win season and a berth in the Western Conference finals in the 2012-13 season.
But his contract was not renewed and he was replaced by assistant coach Dave Joerger.
In his meeting with the media Tuesday to discuss Kidd’s departure, King praised Hollins’ tenure in Memphis, and the way he helped develop the Grizzlies into one of several contenders in the loaded Western Conference. He also lauded Hollins for helping to shepherd the development of point guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol.
“If you look at track record and what he did in Memphis, he was able to go in there and take a team, added some veterans and they continually got better,” King said.
“If you look at Memphis, they got consistently got better every year, [eventually going] all the way to the Western Conference finals.”
With Hollins hired, the next items to address are filling out his coaching staff and the Nets filling out their roster in free agency. Two assistants from Kidd’s staff, John Welch and Joe Prunty, could follow Kidd to Milwaukee, where he already has brought Eric Hughes and Sean Sweeney.
“I’m playing phone tag with Joe, and I’m waiting for an answer on Welch,” Kidd said after his introductory press conference Wednesday morning. “That’s just to see if they want to come.”
Meanwhile, league sources have said the Nets’ 2011 second-round pick Bojan Bogdanovic could be a potential option for the mini mid-level exception after the Nets’ top target for it, Shaun Livingston, was lured away by the Warriors.
Bogdanovic, 25, averaged 14.8 points with Turkish power Fenerbahce Ulker in 24 Euroleague games this season. He is a free agent after spending the past three years under contract with Fenerbahce. The Nets selected him with the first pick of the second round in the 2011 draft.