Nets’ Sean Marks returning as GM for next season with pivotal coaching hire looming

Nets’ Sean Marks returning as GM for next season with pivotal coaching hire looming

Despite a fan fervor that wants Nets general manager Sean Marks gone, he will be back in Brooklyn next season.

And multiple sources told The Post that Marks will make their next coaching hire this summer — one that is going to be an exhaustive leaguewide search.

The Nets will cast a wide net, as it were.

Marks may have lost the confidence of the louder portions of the Nets fanbase, but he still holds the confidence of Nets team owner Joe Tsai.

Sean Marks will return as the Nets’ general manager next season. Noah K. Murray for the NY Post

“Joe and I have always been in complete partnership,” Marks said earlier. “And it doesn’t mean we always agree. I mean, you have to have good discussions and robust discussions, but Joe and I will make this decision, and he has given me no reason to believe that I won’t be able to make that decision.

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“By the end of this I have no doubt that we’ll come and find the best person fit for this job.”

Whether that’s Tsai and Marks making the call, or Marks and Tsai, the point is the New Zealander is very much part of the equation.

And whether the permanent coach ends up being current interim coach Kevin Ollie or someone from outside, the decision is going to be as important as any Marks has made.

Ollie is currently the interim after taking over for the fired Jacque Vaughn, who himself had been an interim for the fired Steve Nash.

“Yeah, I’m the interim, so I’ve got to find out if I’m keeping the job first,” Ollie replied recently to a question from The Post about his status. “We’re going to have some exit meetings here shortly, probably Monday or Tuesday and then we’ll talk. I’ll talk with Sean, our medical staff.

“We do everything as an organization, we do everything as a community. We make sure we have the same voice, surround-sound system with our players, making sure we’re saying the same things. So we’ll have those talks.”

Those talks likely will be a huge part of Marks legacy in Brooklyn.

For the most part, Marks has gotten high marks on his free agent signings and trades and most of all draft picks, constantly finding talent despite never having a lottery pick, mining gems like eventual All-Star Jarrett Allen late in the first round or free agent-to-be Nic Claxton in the second.

But the final exams are how a front office deals with superstars, and how they fare picking head coaches.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban acknowledged it was the toughest part of his job, of having the buck stop with him.

“Hiring a coach is the hardest part of owning a sports team,” Cuban said on “The Pat Bev Pod.” “That’s the hardest … it’s not even close.”

Sean Marks will play a key role in determining the next Nets coach. Charles Wenzelberg

For perspective, Dallas has had just four head coaches in Cuban’s 23 seasons at the helm.

Marks already has run through as many in eight years — five if one counts inheriting interim coach Tony Brown in 2016.

And the first was the best.

Marks ran an exhaustive league-wide search, and pried Kenny Atkinson off Mike Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta.

“Nets culture” has been a much-used buzzword around HSS Training Center, but the hard-working gymrat Atkinson was really a huge driver behind that culture that allowed Marks to land Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the first place.

Kevin Ollie has served as the Nets’ interim coach after Jacque Vaughn was fired. Noah K. Murray for the NY Post

It was likely a misstep to have fired Atkinson, and to acquiesce to stars in an attempt to mollify and coddle that proved in vain.

Nash got the job as soon as he finally agreed it, Marks having tried to recruit him for years.

And Vaughn got promoted midyear after serving as interim for the fired Nash.

This time, the Nets — as Marks said, “Joe and I” — will run an exhaustive search.

That alone should raise their odds of getting it right.

Considering the importance, they can ill afford to get it wrong.