The Long Island Nets enter the 2026-27 NBA G League season with a new head coach, a developing group of young talent, and an opportunity to continue strengthening their connection with the local basketball community. One of the most compelling storylines surrounding the upcoming season is the man leading the way: Shawn Swords, whose connection to Long Island basketball extends beyond his new position on the sidelines at Nassau Coliseum to a much deeper personal one.
Swords, a native of Ottawa, Canada,
was named the eighth head coach in franchise history in July after spending three seasons as the Nets’ associate head coach. He originally joined the organization as an assistant coach ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, on the recommendation of a fellow member of the Canadian national team, Steve Nash. His last head coaching job was at Laurentian University in northern Ontario, about a five hour drive north of Toronto.
But Swords, 52, has a local connection as well as his Canadian links, one that goes beyond his professional responsibilities. His daughters, Syla and Savvy Swords, both attended Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville, where they developed into nationally recognized basketball prospects. Their experiences with the LuHi Crusaders program helped establish a personal connection between the Swords family and the Long Island basketball community.
“It’s awesome, I love it,” Swords said Thursday at the Long Island Nets Media Day when asked about repping the local community. “I think when I first came in, we talked about what the goal was, and I was just like, ‘The goal is just to be on Long Island, where your feet are.’ It’s interesting. We talked about that with two ways that are playing here or NBA players that are on assignment here, be where your feet are. With the girls, they went to LuHi and had great careers there.
“We came here; it is what it is. It feels good to me that it wasn’t just something I said four or five years ago, when people just said, ‘Yeah, whatever, he’s just here for a job.‘ I’ve been here five years. It means a lot, and it’s important to me to represent Long Island and the strong history Long Island has for basketball.”
Syla Swords, a 6’0” forward, became one of the most accomplished players in Long Island Lutheran history before moving on to the University of Michigan where she’s been All-Big 1o the last two hears year. The accomplishments don’t end there, either. She also made history two years ago representing Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming the youngest Canadian basketball player named to an Olympic roster.
Last year, Syla was signed by Unrivaled, the 3×3 basketball league, to NIL deals as part of “The Future is Unrivaled Class of 2025”. She’s a legitimate WNBA prospect.
Younger sister, Savvy, two inches taller and two years younger, continued the family tradition at LuHi before beginning her collegiate career at the University of Kentucky in 2026. She was top collegiate prospect last season. Both daughters have represented Canada in international competitions. In 2023, she helped Team Canada to a FIBA U16 Americup silver medal, while being named to the All-Star Second Team in the process, and in 2024, she aided Team Canada to a U17 World Cup silver medal.
“Now they’re in NCAA, I mean, it says ‘Michigan’ and ‘Kentucky,’ but really their performative years, basketball-wise, have been in LuHi on Long Island. We’ve been here now five years, so it’s really a part of our home,” he told NetsDaily of the daughters’ connection to Long Island.
Now, their father will attempt to make a similar impact with the next generation of Nets talent, young men not much older than his daughters.
Swords brings considerable experience to the position. Before joining the Nets, he spent 15 seasons as the head coach at Laurentian. He also played professionally overseas for a decade — Syla was born in France — and represented Canada on its 2000 Olympic team, headlined by Nash. That combination of playing experience, collegiate coaching, and familiarity with the G League should prove valuable.
The challenge, as always with the G League, will be balancing the pursuit of victories with the organization’s primary objective: developing players who can contribute to the Brooklyn Nets. For Long Island, success will involve more than the win-loss column. Helping players improve and prepare for the NBA will remain central to the team’s identity.
“I think I try to take the age out of it,” Swords tells ND when asked whether Brooklyn’s young core creates any challenges at the Long Island level. “Just the younger players, they have more years to try and get better. But, for each player, each staff member, to be honest, we’re trying to make them a little bit better. We’re not a finished product.
“I joked about my age in terms of playing, coaching, being in that environment and around basketball so long, and I’m not a finished product. I have to improve as a coach, whether that’s as a head coach now in the G League, just with me, with setting up players and all that stuff. I’m not a finished product. So, we don’t expect these young guys to be finished, or a 27-year-old to be finished.
And he notes, the job isn’t just about developing players for Brooklyn but for the wider world of professional basketball, something he’s very familiar with.
“We’re just going to help them get better every single day that they’re here, and by the end of the season, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s great. I went to Long Island, and I got better. Where’s my next step? We’ll see.‘ Hopefully it’s in Brooklyn or in the NBA, and we’ll go from there.”
The 2026-27 training camp roster reflects the development mission. Brooklyn’s young talent who’ll likely get big minutes on Long Island includes Nets first-round picks Joshua Jefferson, Drake Powell, and Ben Saraf, alongside two-way players Chaney Johnson, Grant Nelson, and Tyler Bilodeau. Their time with Long Island could be crucial as they work toward establishing themselves within the Nets organization.
One player Swords already knows well is Nelson, who he worked with as an assistant coach last season. Nelson enters the season as a Brooklyn Nets two-way player after working his way through the organization’s development system. Nelson originally joined the Nets organization in October 2025 and spent much of his first professional season with Long Island.
“Swords has been great to me,” Nelson, now a two-way, told ND. “He was my player development last year, so I got to know him really well. It’s just been good, so far. I think he knows the game really well. He brings more of a relationship aspect to coaching.
“Off the court, we have a great relationship. He uses that on the court to tell me things that other coaches may not be able to tell me because he has built such a good relationship with me. It’s good playing for him. I’m excited to see us go out there and win some games.”
Swords will have a new-look coaching staff supporting that process. Jorge Gutiérrez, the one-time Nets back-up point guard, returns, while Khalif Wyatt, Bryson Johnson, and Al Paul join the group as assistant coaches. Paul brings another direct Long Island connection to the staff, having grown up on Long Island before continuing his coaching career at the collegiate level.
The team will play 20 home games at the Coliseum and return to the Montreal area for four games designated as “home” contests at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.
The Canadian trip is another natural fit for Swords, a French-speaking Canadian who has experience working with Canada’s national basketball programs. The games offer Long Island an opportunity to build its audience beyond New York while giving Swords a familiar cultural connection during the season. Indeed, when the Nets visited Laval last year, it was Swords who welcomed the crowd pre-game … in French.
Swords said that the fan reaction the first two years of the Montreal residency was no surprise to him, although it may have been to others in the organization.
“I think the first year, everyone wasn’t too sure of how we’d be received in Canada,” said Swords. “I kinda knew it would be really good. Montreal has a great baketball history. They love supporting basketball.”
Ultimately, the upcoming campaign represents an important new chapter for the Long Island Nets. Swords inherits an organization focused on developing talent, maintaining a competitive culture, and preparing players for the next level. His experience makes him a logical choice to lead that effort, but his family’s history with Long Island Lutheran adds a personal dimension to his appointment.
For Swords, Long Island is more than the place where he will coach his first season as a G League head coach. It is also a community that helped shape his daughters’ basketball careers. As the Nets begin another season, that connection provides an especially fitting backdrop for a coach tasked with helping the next generation of players reach their potential and watching his daughters for afar as well.
