Tiago Splitter has been promoted to player development coach, J.R. Holden has been added as director of player personnel, Daniel Jones joins the team as physical performance coach and Ryan Forehan-Kelly will assume the role of player development coordinator. Sean Marks made the announcements.
The moves end speculation on how the Nets would deal with the loss of two assistants, Chris Fleming, now with the Bulls, and Pablo Prigioni, now with the Timberwolves.
Splitter enters his second season with the Nets after serving as a pro scout, with added responsibilities related to player on-court development, in the 2018-19 season. A seven-year NBA veteran, Splitter joined the San Antonio Spurs for the 2010-11 season after being drafted by the team in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft. Splitter played five seasons in San Antonio, helping the Spurs win an NBA championship in 2014 before completing the final two seasons of his career in Atlanta and Philadelphia. Marks was an assistant coach on the Spurs 2014 champions. A native of Brazil, Splitter embarked on an 11-year international career in 1999 and played mostly in Spain for Baskonia. There, Splitter helped lead the team to numerous titles while earning All-EuroLeague honors on three occasions. As a member of the Brazilian national team, Splitter won gold medals in the FIBA AmeriCup, the Pan American Games and the South American Championships.
Holden joins the Nets after spending the 2018-19 season as an international scout with the Philadelphia 76ers. Prior to his stint with the Sixers, Holden spent four years with the Detroit Pistons as an international scout (2014-16) and the franchise’s director of international scouting (2016-18). After graduating Bucknell, the Pittsburgh native played overseas for 13 years (1998-2011) , including nine years (2002-11) with CSKA Moscow. He appeared in eight straight EuroLeague Final Fours, winning two titles. He also won nine straight Russian League championships as well as national league titles in Latvia, Belgium and Greece. While playing for the Russian national team in the 2007 FIBA Eurobasket title game, he hit the game-winning shot. Mikhail Prokhorov owned CSKA during most of Holden’s career. He became a Russian citizen in 2003 by presidential fiat and helped lead Russia to the FIBA EuroBasket 2007 championship, hitting the dagger over Spain. Gregg Polinsky previously held the director of player personnel position. He left the Nets more than a year ago and now works for the Pistons.
Jones moves to Brooklyn after spending the past six years as head strength coach for the North Melbourne Football Club in Australia. Dan Meehan, the Nets sports science director, had previously joined the Nets from North Melbourne F.C. Prior to his most recent role, Jones served as the club’s rehabilitation coordinator in addition to the team’s academy physical performance and rehabilitation coordinator. Concurrently, Jones worked in a part-time role for the Werribee Football Club from 2015-16 as its high performance manager and for the North Ballarat Roosters Football Club as head of strength and conditioning from 2010-15. Jones earned a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science degree from the University of Ballarat in Australia in 2011, followed by a Master of Exercise Science from Edith Cowan University in 2013.
Forehan-Kelly has been named to his current role following two seasons with Brooklyn’s NBA G League affiliate, the Long Island Nets. He spent last season as Long Island’s associate head coach after spending the season prior as an assistant coach. Forehan-Kelly originally joined the Nets organization in 2016 as a Brooklyn video seasonal assistant on Kenny Atkinson’s staff. Prior to joining the Nets, Forehan-Kelly played professionally for 13 years on teams in Japan, Venezuela, China, France and Italy, along with playing two seasons (2008-10) in the NBA G League with the Los Angeles D-Fenders, now the South Bay Lakers. The Long Beach, Calif., native played four seasons (1998-2002) at the University of California, Berkeley, where he ranks seventh all-time in 3-point field goal percentage (.407).
The moves follow earlier announcements that saw the Nets name Matt Riccardi director of scouting as well as GM of the Long Island Nets and Matt Tellem, the Nets director of strategic planning, as Long Island’s assistant GM.