Jordi Fernández arrived in Brooklyn with a various international résumé, highlighted by intensive teaching expertise within the G League, NBA and on the worldwide stage. Alongside the best way, he constructed a powerful fame as a participant developer and defensive-minded strategist, and people qualities grew to become evident in his first season as Brooklyn’s head coach.
The Nets could have completed 26-56 and outdoors the playoff image, however Fernández’s first season nonetheless carried the texture of a step ahead. Brooklyn performed with grit and edge on most nights, refusing to resemble the tanking group many anticipated. Whilst accidents and roster turnover took their toll, the Nets leaned right into a linked fashion constructed on ball motion, tempo management and defensive effort.
Greater than the numbers, although, the season’s true progress was within the tradition Fernández and his workers started to construct, the place accountability, buy-in and perception gave the 12 months its sense of objective. The most important problem coming into Yr 2, past pushing the Nets again into playoff competition, is integrating a younger core of 5 first-rounders whereas persevering with to reshape the group’s id.
“Player development is going to be important,” Fernandez instructed reporters after June’s draft. “We’ve been very diligent. The coaching staff has done a great job making our guys work, and those guys have improved. And we believe they’ll do the same thing.”
After star-chasing gambles that outlined the franchise’s final half-decade failed, Brooklyn lastly pivoted to persistence, changing into the primary group in NBA historical past to draft 5 first-rounders in a single evening: BYU’s Egor Demin (No. 8), France’s Nolan Traoré (No. 19), North Carolina’s Drake Powell (No. 22), Israel’s Ben Saraf (No. 26) and Michigan’s Danny Wolf (No. 27).
Executives laughed. Brokers rolled their eyes. To many across the league, Brooklyn’s plan appeared extra like a punchline than a path ahead. 4 of the 5 picks have been guards with overlapping talent units and questionable taking pictures. Some noticed the choice to stockpile picks fairly than package deal them for a star as a missed alternative.
In Bleacher Report’s winners-and-losers roundup of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Nets landed in each classes. If even a couple of of their picks develop into regular rotation items, it’s a win. However attempting to develop 5 rookies directly could possibly be troublesome in right now’s NBA.
“If even two of Egor Demin, Nolan Traoré, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf look like solid NBA players, this draft will be pretty easy to look at as a success,” Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey wrote. “Any more than that, and it’ll be a smashing one.”
For Fernández, the job is about translation, taking his fame as a participant developer and making use of it to the most important rookie class in NBA historical past. Brooklyn’s draft wasn’t merely about including our bodies; it was the clearest sign but that the franchise has dedicated to enjoying the lengthy recreation.
Whether or not that persistence pays off — and whether or not the Nets can maximize their unprecedented rookie haul — stays to be seen. What’s sure is that no take a look at of Fernández’s player-development expertise has ever been larger.
The problem of what Brooklyn is making an attempt can’t be overstated. Younger gamers want regular reps to develop, but carving out significant minutes for 5 rookies alongside established veterans feels almost not possible. 4 of the 5 are ball handlers, too, that means they’ll be competing for a similar backcourt alternatives — a dynamic that would stunt particular person progress.
“All these guys can really pass the ball,” Fernandez mentioned. “All those paint touches and ball reversals, it just helps you when you have not only primary ball handlers, but also secondary ball handlers and all these guys can do it. So, it’s all a positive. There’s no negatives here.”
Even rebuilding groups just like the Nets face strain from followers to stay aggressive. Leaning on 5 inexperienced rookies makes that far tougher. It’s onerous sufficient for one rookie to regulate rapidly, not to mention 5. The steep studying curve virtually ensures errors that price wins, and if the group doesn’t flash early promise, gamers danger being buried on the depth chart or moved, undermining the group’s long-term imaginative and prescient.
Nonetheless, there are causes to consider Fernández and his workers may simply pull off the not possible. In Denver, he was a part of the group that helped form Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray and now-Internet Michael Porter Jr. into stars. In Sacramento, he earned a fame for his hands-on growth with guards and wings, constructing belief and confidence in younger gamers like Davion Mitchell and Keegan Murray.
Throughout his worldwide stints, Fernández was tasked with fast-tracking younger gamers whereas retaining veteran teams aggressive. The identical balancing act now awaits him in Brooklyn, the place he should convey the group’s rookie class on top of things with out letting the group regress. And even with a depleted roster final season, the Nets managed to play disciplined, unselfish basketball. That form of tradition is crucial for bringing rookies alongside, and with a entrance workplace unified on the long-term plan, Brooklyn’s newcomers received’t be left sorting by blended indicators.
The Nets are trying one thing no NBA group has ever tried, an endeavor many across the league view as impractical at finest and reckless at worst. If the experiment fails, they danger stalling their rebuild, losing a historic draft class and resetting as soon as once more with no clear path again to competition.
However right here’s the query few appear keen to think about: what if it really works? What if Fernández really finds a approach to make all of it click on? If he can flip 5 rookies into one thing extra, Brooklyn’s gamble might redefine what a contemporary NBA rebuild appears to be like like, and switch an experiment mocked in June right into a blueprint others will attempt to observe.
