All reports indicate that Jordi Fernandez’s tenure as Nets head coach has gotten off to a promising start.
Veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith appreciates how detail-oriented Fernandez has been in early practices. Second-year forward Noah Clowney loves how hands-on Fernandez can be with his on-court instruction. Other young players on the roster view Fernandez as a coach who can help unlock certain aspects of their game at both ends of the court.
“As a young guy, you always want to have a coach who believes in development,” second-year forward Dariq Whitehead said of Fernandez. “Just knowing that we have a coach who came from where we were last year and believes in that process and trusts in that process and knowing that it’s a grind.”
However, Fernandez has been away from the franchise in recent weeks preparing Team Canada for a run at gold at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris later this month. He is not expected to report back to Brooklyn until mid-August.
General manager Sean Marks fully supported Fernandez’s Olympic pursuits when he was officially hired in April. He believed the more chances Fernandez had to hold a clipboard, the better, and his stance on the situation has not changed.
The chance to lead a national team has been a dream come true for Fernandez, as it would be for any aspiring head coach. Marks never had any intentions of taking opportunity away from him, but Fernandez’s absence has still left the Nets in a somewhat awkward position this summer.
“It’s definitely strange when you don’t have your head coach,” Whitehead said.
The Nets are in the process of trying to build continuity under a new coaching regime. Doing so can be difficult without their head coach in the building, even if the situation is temporary. But the franchise has seemingly managed well in spite of it.
The team formed a “robust” offseason program for players and has leaned more heavily on newly-hired assistants such as Steve Hetzel, Fernandez’s lead man on the bench who is currently serving as head coach of the summer league team, and Juwan Howard, whose reputation speaks for itself.
“It’s been great,” second-year forward Jalen Wilson said of Hetzel’s leadership in Fernandez’s absence. “His intensity, his attention to detail, I feel like [he has] everything we need to advance this summer. From Day 1 he’s been high energy, wanting to get guys better in all different aspects — watching film, on the court. So, I think it’s been great to have him around, to be able to pick his brain, and for us to be coached by him this summer is a great opportunity.”
Howard played 19 seasons in the NBA, won two championships as a player with the Heat, spent six seasons as an assistant under Erik Spoelstra and more recently served as Michigan men’s basketball’s head coach. His basketball experience has been an invaluable asset for the Nets so far, as expected.
“Just picking his brain and seeing how intelligent he is and his knowledge for the game,” Whitehead said. “I just love talking to him because he’s a real positive dude. Never brings negative energy to practice, even if it’s something he was going through outside of practice, you would never be able to tell, just always being positive and always pushing us to be the best versions of ourselves and looking at us as if we were his own kids and he’d been coaching us for years. So, that’s just one thing I respect from him, just always coming in with that right attitude and pushing us to just be the best version of ourselves.”
On top of the contributions of Hetzel, Howard and others, Fernandez has been in constant communication with his staff, and he remains in sync with the front office from afar. Nets players will be in capable hands until he returns, and until he does, he will continue to stay in players’ ears in whatever way he can.
“He sent us texts the other day,” Whitehead said after last Tuesday’s practice. “We didn’t have the best practice. He texted and said we need to pick it up. He sent us a text that he watched it and that led to us having a great practice. He sent us all texts around 2, 3 in the morning, I guess they were just finishing practice or whatever. We came in, talked about it, talked about him sending us that text, and we picked it up the next day. So, just having a head coach who’s still involved while he’s not physically here, it’s just huge for us, especially as a young team.”