Much of the outside buzz surrounding the Nets has centered around acquiring Donovan Mitchell, and will likely continue to do so until the superstar signs a contract extension with Cleveland or is traded to another team.
But what about within the Nets organization? Everything they say, and more importantly, everything they do, still points to a reset for 2025.
Just listen to Nets owner Joe Tsai. Said this week.
“The Brooklyn Nets are at a crossroads in a sense,” Tsai acknowledged Thursday at J.P. Morgan’s Global China Summit in Shanghai. “We didn’t perform as well as we hoped last season. We missed the playoffs, but we want to revamp the team and make it a contender for the long term.”
“When an owner asks you, ‘What do you want to do with your basketball team?’ I think there’s a difference between someone who says they want to win and someone who says they want to build a sustainable winning mentality and culture. Those are two very different things. … If you just want to win now, you could potentially sabotage your future by giving up all your assets to win now. But I think what I want to do with the Brooklyn Nets is take a longer-term approach and build a sustainable winning culture that will continue to win.”
And that was evident in who Tsai and Nets general manager Sean Marks chose to be head coach.
That’s evident in their selection of Jordi Fernandez, the first NBA head coach with a development background, over a proven but expensive veteran like Mike Budenholzer.
The group of assistant coaches Fernandez has surrounded himself with is further evidence of the Nets’ tacit acceptance of their current situation.
“It’s a really exciting team, a team that can play fast full-court, half-court,” Fernandez said last month. “Young guys are always great because that’s what keeps the team going. That’s what excites me the most, making the players better.”
“Our job as coaches is to work with the players and help them take the next step. If the players don’t improve, that’s on me and the rest of the coaching staff. So I’m excited about this process and excited to work with the players. I’ve already been in contact with all of the players. We’re going to take it one day at a time, and then when the first game comes we’ll be ready to compete.”
Despite being named the league’s best assistant by NBA general managers, lowering the bench by a seat (18 inches) is a different job. Fernandez is recognized for his basketball talent and integrity, but his ability to develop talent may be his best-known attribute.
The 41-year-old has assembled his coaching staff largely along those lines.
And when asked what excites him most about a Nets team that finished 32-50 last season, he made no mention of the stars on the roster or the assets available to acquire them (such as Mitchell).
No, he pointed to the young talent he and his staff will get a chance to develop.
They have talented players like 25-year-old big man Nic Claxton (if he re-signs as an unrestricted free agent this summer), 22-year-old scoring guard Cam Thomas and 19-year-olds Noah Clowney and Darik Whitehead.
“Youth excites me,” Fernandez said. “Having young, talented players on the team means we can keep them with us for a long time, so we can develop them and get them to perform at their best and be with the team. So the flexibility that we have, the resources that we have, that’s very exciting.”
“We have a first-class owner, a first-class management team and a front office. Combine all that together and you have the perfect recipe for success.”
Tsai, co-founder and chairman of Alibaba, is also co-owner of the WNBA’s New York Liberty with his wife, Clara.
Fernandez sat courtside with Clara during the Liberty’s win over Seattle on Monday night, with many of the new staff members also in attendance.
Introducing our new staff
The group is becoming more focused, and nearly all of the coaches are development-minded.
Steve Hetzel, a 19-year veteran of San Antonio, Cleveland and Portland, will serve as head assistant and Fernandez calls Hetzel his “coaching father” after working under him with the Cavs’ G-League team.
“[Fernandez] “He has a very strong player development background,” Cavaliers general manager Mike Guenthe told The Post. “When I became an intern with the Cavs, he was here and I watched him work with the players every day and I saw how much the players enjoyed being around him and how much they enjoyed growing with him.”
Gansey, who was general manager of the Cavs’ G League affiliate, named Hetzel as head coach and Fernandez as an assistant, and promoted Fernandez next season when Hetzel left the team, saying the pair would give the Nets a distinct player-development flavor.
“Those two guys are going to help our young guys get better and better every day,” Gandhi said. “Obviously Jordi is great, but adding Hetz just gives us more ammunition. They’re going to get better, they’re going to play faster and it’s going to be fun.”
Adam Capone, Ryan Forehan-Kelly and Corey Vinson were retained from staffs that worked first under head coach Jacque Vaughn and then under interim coach Kevin Ollie. Jay Hernandez also stayed, according to Hoopshype.
Given the development work with Forehan-Kelly and Claxton, as well as the rapport between Vinson and Mikal Bridges, their returns were always expected.
In addition to Hetzel, the new assistants include Juwan Howard (the former University of Michigan head coach), Connor Griffin (who was popular with players the past two seasons in Denver and won a championship ring) and former Lithuanian pro Deividas Darkis, who worked with Fernandez the past two years in Sacramento and helped develop upcoming free agent Malik Monk.
Griffin and Dalkeys will be player development coaches, bringing the number of assistants to eight.
It’s unclear whether Nets head video coordinator Travis Bader, who attended the Liberty game with Fernandez, has been promoted to ninth assistant.
Further developments
But what is clear is that no wise elder statesman or former head coach has been hired to help Fernandez, the way Steve Nash turned first to his own former head coach, Mike D’Antoni, and then to veteran Steve Clifford.
The Nets also fired Ollie, Ronnie Burrell (the 2023 G League Coach of the Year) and Will Weaver (who served as head coach in the G League, Australia and France and was also Ollie’s lead assistant).
Hetzel and Capone are the only two members of that staff who have served as head coaches in the G League, while Howard was a head coach in college but his game-day management came under scrutiny in Ann Arbor.
Considering how far along the Nets are in their rebuild, it probably makes a lot more sense for Budenholzer to join the now-winning Suns.
The Nets clearly have an eye on development, and Fernandez’s personnel placement only reinforces that.
“There’s always a context for every hire, and some people are a better fit at certain times on the timeline than others,” Marks said last month. “I think there’s something that distinguishes Jordi from a lot of the other candidates that we found. [was] “He can look at development rosters. He can take a lot of different paths. He’s coached stars before, he’s been a development director before. He’s done a lot of different roles.”
“… You never know how guys are going to make the leap. Some guys are going to make the leap quicker than others. So I expect some of the guys on this roster to make the leap quicker than others.” [expected]”… I don’t want to limit them.”
If anything, the Nets want to accelerate it.
And when you look at the makeup of this coaching staff, you can see they’re betting on it.
