On Friday, ESPN's most recent round of layoffs hit like a ton of bricks when a number of on-air personalities were given their walking papers, some of whom had worked for the network for a number of years. There was maybe no more grounded response than to that of the news that Jeff Van Gundy was among those abilities. 

JVG remained imperfect as an examiner yet he'd been a staple of ESPN and ABC communicates for a long time and stays one of the top variety reporters in the game. Even after the weekend, it still feels shocking that ESPN decided to let Van Gundy go instead of doing everything in their power to keep their best NBA broadcast team as negotiations for rights begin in earnest in the coming year.

Despite your thought process of the choice, JVG is gone and he ain't returning. To ESPN, at any rate. And that implies there is an open spot close by Mike Breen and Imprint Jackson that the organization needs to fill. There is an opportunity they roll with Breen/Jackson as the two-man team for the 2023-24 season however that isn't reasonable. They have been performing as a trio for nearly a decade. 

Changing back to a pair would be a greater amount of an acclimation to everybody's work stream than a renewed individual in JVG's place would be. What's more, honestly, just Breen and Jackson wouldn't be a generally excellent stall.

Who could ESPN tap to supplant Van Gundy? It will very likely be an inner competitor, as laying off Van Gundy just to then compose a major check to pay someone from an alternate organization to join wouldn't be an incredible look. Between the cutbacks and the money laid out last year to redesign the Monday Night Football stall, an advancement from inside seems like the main way.