CAMDEN, N.J. — Jacque Vaughn has gone from placeholder to keeper. 

Vaughn has expertly — and calmly — navigated the Nets through a season of constant chaos to bring them to their first-round playoff opener against the 76ers on Saturday at Wells Fargo Arena. 

Considering the trying circumstances he inherited as head coach, Vaughn getting the Nets across the regular-season finish line and into the postseason — and avoiding the dreaded play-in game — is as noteworthy as it is worthy of praise and even a raise. 

Vaughn spent the past few years being the overlooked guy. Now he’s the fit Nets management was seeking all along the past few years while it chased the wrong coaches and the wrong players. All along, Vaughn was right there in the building. 

A part of Kenny Atkinson’s staff when Atkinson was fired, Vaughn was elevated from assistant to interim and coached the Nets to a 7-3 record in the 2020 COVID-19 “bubble,” including a playoff appearance. 

His reward for that was the team hiring Steve Nash instead of him, despite the fact that Nash came without a day of coaching experience. 

That, as you may have heard, didn’t work out so well. 

Nor did the Nets’ pursuit of former Celtics coach Ime Udoka, whom they reportedly coveted after they fired Nash … until the heat surrounding Udoka’s suspension for “violations of team policies” for an inappropriate relationship with a woman within the Celtics organization became too intense. 

While the Udoka controversy was percolating, there were rumors that the Nets might turn to former Jazz coach Quin Snyder or Pelicans consultant Mike D’Antoni, Nash’s mentor, to coach the team. 

In the end, the Udoka mess left Vaughn in place again as the interim coach. All he did was lead the team to a 43-32 record (after it was 2-5 when Nash was fired) and into the postseason without any of the stars the team had stacked onto its roster in recent years — Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden, who now plays for the 76ers. 

Sometimes the best answer is the simplest one, the one sitting right in front of you. 

“I think he’s done a terrific job, and he’s done it under extreme circumstances,’’ 76ers coach Doc Rivers said Wednesday. “It started in the summer. They got a guy that said he wanted to be traded [Durant] and all of a summer people thought he was going to get traded, didn’t get traded, then they had a guy they were trying to trade [Irving] and didn’t trade. Then they come back and everything’s good. Then it blew back up. 

“Now he has a new team, and I think he’s enjoying coaching this group more, because it’s none of that stuff anymore.’’ 

Rivers, who coached Vaughn as a player with the Magic in the 2002-03 season and saw a future coach in him, was referring to the Nets’ mess that involved superstar divas Irving and Durant. Neither is with the Nets anymore, and Vaughn has steadied the ship from the turbulent waters. 

“I think he’s done great,’’ 76ers forward P.J. Tucker said Wednesday. “To be able to take that situation over, lose one of the best players in the league [Durant], I think it’s pretty amazing they’re still a really, really solid team that still won a lot of games even after the trade. He’s gotten those guys to step up and play really well together as a team, with everybody involved.’’ 

Vaughn’s Nets are now about Mikal Bridges, Nic Claxton and Cameron Johnson, and the way they play together as a team rather than diva drama and discontent. 

It seems Vaughn’s resilience and patience finally have paid off after years of being overlooked or viewed as a merely a plausible backup option. 

“He’s been an organizational guy for sure,’’ Rivers said. “In the job that he wanted there’s only 30 of them, and there are 90 more guys that want to do it. And when you don’t have one of those jobs, you’ve just got to have patience.’’ 

The Nets gave Vaughn a contract extension through the 2026-27 season. Patience paid off. 

Asked if he believes Vaughn, based on the job he has done this season, deserves to be viewed as a coach who has crossed that threshold from interim to long-term answer, Rivers said, “Yeah, I think so for sure.’’ 

The 76ers won 54 regular-season games, have more star players, are deeper and more talented than the Nets, and won all four meetings between the teams this season, so it is no surprise they are favored to win this series and advance to play the Celtics-Hawks winner. 

But what if the Nets win? It’s not out of the question. 

Whether they do or they don’t, it’s still time to stop overlooking the guy who has spent too much time being overlooked.