On April 22nd, the Brooklyn Nets hired former Sacramento Kings’ Associate Coach Jordi Fernandez to be the team’s 24th Head Coach in franchise history.
While the Nets’ Head Coaching vacancy may not have been a premiere opening, the Nets deciding to bring in a young, up-incoming leader as opposed to a coach that may have been a bigger name is a welcome sight to the Brooklyn fanbase.
Fernandez’s hiring came after a disappointing regular season, where the Nets finished 32-50 and fired Head Coach Jacque Vaughn after a 21-33 start to the year. The product on the floor did not improve much after Vaughn departed, as Interim HC Kevin Ollie only brought the team to finish the year on an 11-17 mark.
While the expectations were low for the Nets entering their first full season without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the main objective of the year was to see if they had a player to build the franchise around on the current roster.
The general consensus was that Mikal Bridges could be the centerpiece. After being traded from the Phoenix Suns, Bridges finished the year averaging 26.1 points a night in 27 games to lead Brooklyn to the playoffs.
This past season however, one of the 2022 finalists for Most Improved Players struggled with the task of leading the Nets’ offense, averaging just 19.6 a game with a .032 drop to his field goal average.
Another shining star at the end of the ‘22-’23 campaign was their 2021 First Round Pick Cam Thomas. Despite only receiving inconsistent minutes, Thomas shined in the team’s adjustment period of the trade deadline, as he scored 47, 43 and then 20 minutes in the first three games without Irving and Durant.
Flash forward to last season however, Thomas’ season was not as successful as the numbers look on paper. Thomas finished the year averaging 22.5 points a night, however with an effective field goal percentage just north of 50%, most of his best efforts did not come in wins, thus making the idea of him being the first option on a winning franchise bleak.
Simply put, the search for Brooklyns’ coming attraction may not have a uniform yet. And due to the franchise’s current resources, it may not be coming soon.
After basically two “all-in” efforts by the Nets in 10-years, the trading of future draft picks has come to haunt them in 2024. Unless a trade comes before this year’s draft, the Nets will not have a single selection in either round. They recently acquired the Suns’ 2025 First-Round selection, but in 2026 the Nets currently will not be drafting in the First-Round either.
So, with a non-competitive roster rolling into next year without the addition of any drafted talent, the product is not expected to improve under Fernandez’s leadership. But, as backwards as it may sound, this is exactly how it should be.
While the full-blown tanking process has not been as popular as it was during “The Process” years in Philadelphia, the depletion of talent to obtain a lottery ticket is still alive and well in the NBA. Especially with the introduction of the Play-In tournament, there is now less trade deadline sellers than ever before, making the bottom of the standings especially talent-less.
For a franchise that has recently either thrown money at superstars to purchase a super team or been below average, now is a perfect opportunity to build from within and collect future assets, which could lead to sustained success.
This year’s playoffs is a perfect example of the new formula league-wide, as teams like the Thunder, Pacers, and Magic are showing how quickly young talent can change the direction of a franchise, with the Nuggets being the highest bar.
First things first to attempt to get to this blueprint is to put anyone and everyone on the trading block. Even though the two top prospects entering the year did not live up to expectations, they can both still bring in first rounders in return. Some pride will need to be swallowed for Sean Marks, who reportedly passed on multiple first-round picks for Bridges earlier in the year. However, it is not too late to receive a return of the league’s iron man.
But, with as busy of an offseason as it seems to be for Brooklyn, the hiring of Fernandez seems to be a great way to start. Fernandez is a highly-acclaimed assistant coach, coming from two franchises (Kings & Nuggets) who were once in similar positions to the Nets this season. He is a coach the team targeted for some time now, and it could symbol a change of philosophy from the top down.
