{"id":338917,"date":"2026-09-05T17:32:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338917\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:32:48","slug":"jordi-fernandez-has-more-to-prove-as-brooklyn-nets-shift-toward-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/338917\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordi Fernandez has More to Prove as Brooklyn Nets Shift Toward Winning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"95\">The Brooklyn Nets have higher expectations next season, which also means higher expectations for their head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9a\">After spending the past few seasons in the midst of a rebuild, the Nets appear ready to begin competing for a spot in the postseason again. With midseason additions in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/nets-julius-randle-takes-no-credit-for-knicks-championship\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Julius Randle<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/nets-mikel-brown-jr-garners-ultimate-praise-from-three-time-all-nba-guard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mikel Brown Jr<\/a>. and others giving the Nets some more potential star power and better depth, Brooklyn could be a team to watch out for in the East.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9f\">Of course, the man tasked with tying everything together and ensuring that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/nets\/onsi\/brooklyn-nets-shouldn-t-hesitate-to-tank-if-team-has-slow-start-in-2026-27\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brooklyn <\/a>can compete with the talent it has is Jordi Fernandez. Entering his third season as the Nets\u2019 head coach, Fernandez has impressed with his performance across his first two seasons as the top guy on an NBA bench.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9k\">Despite Brooklyn\u2019s overall performance, Fernandez has always shown some signs that he could lead a team to solid results. After effectively being forced to tank over the past couple of years, Fernandez will finally get the opportunity he\u2019s been waiting for.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9p\">While that should add some excitement for Fernandez, it also comes with a bit of pressure. Of course, after the past couple of years, pressure should be a welcome sight for just about everyone in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9u\">Most interestingly, Fernandez will not only be tasked with trying to get the Nets into a position where they can compete for a play-in spot, but he will also be tasked with developing the young talent Brooklyn has added over the past couple of years. Considering most of that young talent was on last season\u2019s 20-win squad, Fernandez will need to find ways to thread the needle of development and competition with that young core.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9z\">It would obviously be helpful if Randle or Michael Porter Jr. could be All-Star-level players next season and take some of the burden off the young guys. However, the Nets\u2019 hopes of making the postseason will almost certainly rely upon the ability of the young core to contribute to winning basketball.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a4\">So, it will ultimately be up to Fernandez to find the best fits in the lineup and best roles for each player next season. Putting together a puzzle like this won\u2019t be easy, but it\u2019s the job Fernandez signed up for, and he could easily be in the Coach of the Year race if he puts it all together.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-blue my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a9\">It\u2019s impossible to say how next season will go, but either way, it should have Fernandez\u2019s fingerprints all over it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:pointerenter=\"q-DWFS2gEK.js#s_1NOcOpHWmT0\" on:touchstart=\"q-DixIFGoh.js#s_R8AiGTDeM28\" on:focus=\"q-DqOssC2w.js#s_gxiTM6qMMu8\" on:click=\"q-Du4lOjQs.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"af\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brooklyn Nets have higher expectations next season, which also means higher expectations for their head coach.\u00a0 After&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-338917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}