Jordi Fernandez discovered life less complicated as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings. Although his tasks various at every cease, his core mission remained the identical: to lighten the top coach’s load. His space of focus was slender.
In his debut season as Nets head coach, the 42-year-old was stretched throughout a mess of duties, from managing staff efficiency and participant growth to fostering relationships and cultivating a successful tradition.
“It’s a really cool experience and being able to represent a franchise and be in a different role, a different seat, it’s an honor because you get to represent this name on your chest and always represent it,” Fernandez stated.
Balancing a flood of day by day tasks is a problem few can anticipate. Like the top coaches he as soon as supported, Fernandez needed to alter in actual time. Regardless of a 26-56 season, Brooklyn wraps up 2024-25 with notable organizational positive aspects. Underneath Fernandez, progress was undeniably achieved.
“I think the best thing that you guys have not yet been able to see is the day-to-day,” Fernandez stated. “What you guys see is the product on the ground. And in addition to the wins and losses on the standings, we’ve obtained numerous wins — what we think about wins, and from gamers getting higher, proper?
“And you go down the line with all these guys, obviously we all want to see a result which is numbers, but the development, which is like every day, and the work they put in, and they show up with positive energy, energy in the gym. It’s not just the players, also the coaches, everybody else supporting everybody else, coming on the road and watching us, and you feel the togetherness. And at the end of the day, you see a connected group out there.”
In his first yr, Fernandez aimed to construct a tradition that gamers and coaches would embrace — one compelling sufficient to attract top-tier free brokers, interact followers, and elevate Brooklyn’s international model. In accordance with basic supervisor Sean Marks, the Spaniard did simply that, and it began with sincere communication.
“It was a loud, fun atmosphere here — and that’s not easy to do when [the team isn’t winning], right?” Marks stated. “There were some hard lessons learned there from coaches, organization, from players and so forth. But you came in here every single day, and you knew exactly what you were going to get from Jordi and the coaching staff… He had honest conversations with the players, and that followed through into the season. That’s not easy to do. That’s difficult. So, you knew exactly, you got consistency from him.”
Fernandez now embarks on his first full offseason with the Nets, having spent a lot of final summer time teaching Crew Canada on the Olympics. He’d be fast to emphasise the crucial nature of this summer time for the franchise.
With the NBA Draft approaching, Brooklyn is assessing its subsequent wave of expertise. New draftees, alongside the staff’s present younger gamers, will want growth. Returning gamers will profit from one other offseason in Fernandez’s system, and that continuity can be important for 2025-26 and past.
“We have a year under our belts of understanding Jordi’s system and how he wants to play and what sort of talent he’s looking for, what attributes he’s looking for,” Marks stated. “What’s important to him is super important. And vice versa, there’s an education piece on the draft. I didn’t know he’s had this role in the draft in the past, but I’m thoroughly looking forward to continuing to build this and build this with him.”
Trying forward, Fernandez stays targeted on the long-term imaginative and prescient, assured that the muse laid this season will yield higher outcomes.
“So yes, do we want more wins? Yeah, they will come,” Fernandez stated. “And when they come, they’ll come, and they’re going to keep. We’re going to sustain it, and we’re going to keep increasing it. So that’s how we see it. This year, so far, has been, for me in my opinion, very good. But now we have to do it again and do it better. And that’s why the summer, like Sean said, is extremely important.”
