In his second year as Brooklyn Nets head coach, Jordi Fernandez is tasked with setting the tone and culture for an inexperienced team that is bound to land in the 2026 NBA Draft lottery.
“Obviously, the energy that we’ve had at times — I need consistency and urgency, and that has to be something that we cannot decide if we are doing it or not,” the 43-year-old said after the Nets’ 137-109 loss to the Rockets in Houston on Monday to begin the season 0-4. “It is a matter of who we want to be,” he asserted of the league’s youngest roster, which has an average age of 23.3.
“It is just unacceptable to take an NBA game for granted, and our guys are trying. They just don’t know how much harder and focused they can do things, and you know I believe they will keep taking those steps,” Fernandez added. “A lot of just lack of experience, but we are going to challenge them. The coaches are great, and we are going to find a way to challenge,to sustain the focus every possession. It doesn’t matter if you play 20 seconds, if you play 3 minutes, if you play 10 minutes; your attention to detail and your effort has to be there, and I know the guys will learn from it.”
One of three 19-year-old rookies selected by Brooklyn in the first round of last June’s draft,
6’ 6” point guard Ben Saraf, had started the first four games of the season heading into last night’s home game at the Barclays Center versus the Atlanta Hawks. The 26th overall pick, who was born in South Africa and raised in Israel since the age of 3, has struggled, averaging 4.0 points on 26% shooting and 3.8 assists in just under 18 minutes before facing the Hawks.
Egor Denim, who was the team’s first selection in this year’s draft with the eighth overall pick, has played considerably better in the first week of the season. The 6’ 8” guard from Moscow, Russia, who played one season for BYU, shot 50%, averaging just under nine points in the first three games before sitting out Monday’s game for left plantar fascia tear injury management.
The third first-round pick, Nolan Traoré, a 6’ 3” guard from the Paris region of France, scored a combined seven points in his first two games.
Nets guard Cam Thomas is once again proving to be one of the NBA’s most prolific scorers early in the 2025–2026 season. The 6’ 3” 24-year-old, who averaged 24.0 points per game last season, playing just 25 due to left hamstring issues, is off to a sizzling start, scoring 33 points versus the Cleveland Cavaliers last Friday followed by 40 against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.
Brooklyn will host the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday before heading to Indiana to play the Pacers next Wednesday.
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