P.J. Carlesimo also reflected on his time with the Nets, and touched on the players' offseason remarks that they wanted a veteran head coach who could bring toughness, command respect and hold them accountable.
"This time I think there was a little bit of 'I wasn’t hard enough on the team,'" Carlesimo said. "Every other time I've coached in the league, I was too hard on the guys. So I think people spin things the way they want to do it.
"Whoever comes in here, he’ll get at least a short chance. By the time training camp is over, by the time November/December is over, he’s either going to have proven to the players how capable he is and then they’ll go forward from that, or for whatever reason, it will go sideways or stutter a little bit in the beginning."
Said Carlesimo of the team’s next head coach: "I don’t think there is a magic person in terms of a profile. I don’t think it’s got to be somebody that's coached in the league for 10 years. I don’t think it’s somebody that has to have been a head coach. There are too many examples of guys with no coaching experience thriving right off the bat. I think you’re not going to win in this league much less win a championship unless you have a veteran team.
"I think for the most part, it's a good group. I really do. I think you’re never going to get 15 guys that you love their attitude; you love the way they work and the way they listen. But in general, I think it’s a good group, and whoever is lucky enough to get the job will like working with that group.
"But maybe I’m being unrealistic, but I would not say it can’t be an assistant or can't be a young guy or can't be somebody that hasn’t been a head coach in the league before. I think when you get in there and get a chance to be face to face with guys and get through training camp with them and coach some games, they'll know.
"They’ll sense at that point this is the right guy or this guy knows what he's doing or he doesn’t know what he's doing. I don't think it will be that."