{"id":357769,"date":"2026-09-26T20:48:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T20:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T20:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T20:48:47","slug":"jordi-fernandez-finally-gets-chance-to-truly-coach-nets-as-rebuild-enters-new-phase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/357769\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordi Fernandez finally gets chance to truly coach Nets as rebuild enters new phase"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going into his third training camp in Brooklyn<\/a>, and for the first time, he finally will get to coach.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to imply he has been sitting around doing nothing through his first two seasons with the Nets. But with them overtly tanking, it\u2019s been far more teaching than coaching. That should change, starting with this training camp.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake, the Nets are still a young, rebuilding team<\/a> that\u2019s going to be closer to the cellar than a championship, tabbed to be the third-worst in the league by oddsmakers.<\/p>\n

But even if they aren\u2019t likely to be a winning team, at least they\u2019re going to try to be one. That should bring a different feeling into the preseason, and ultimately the regular season.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez speaks with the media during post season interviews at HSS Training Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., Monday, April 13, 2026. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. has proclaimed they can win 50 games, and newcomer Julius Randle<\/a> vowed that they would \u201cshock the world. \u2026 Whatever your expectations are, whatever expectations are put upon us, we\u2019re going to exceed them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez has told Randle \u2014 and presumably his team \u2014 as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust talking to [Fern\u00e1ndez and GM Sean Marks], they\u2019re really excited to have me here,\u201d Randle said over the summer. \u201cJordi is really excited. He feels like we\u2019ve got a chance to win every single game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just ingraining that as an expectation will be one of the key tasks this training camp and preseason. There is a fine line between playing hard \u2014 which the Nets largely did last season \u2014 and expecting to win.<\/p>\n

In essence, mentally putting the tank behind them.<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets looks on against the Miami Heat during the first quarter of a game at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, on March 3, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Of course, winning in the short term is going to have to be driven by Porter and Randle. Coming off a 20-62 campaign, they\u2019re projected to win just 19.5 to 24.5 this season, even challenging for the Play-In is unlikely. If either Porter or Randle get dealt, unlikely becomes all but impossible.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s a tomorrow problem, not a today one.<\/p>\n

And a worry for Marks, not Fern\u00e1ndez. His concern is coaching the players he has, for as long as he has them.<\/p>\n

That means using training camp and the preseason to craft a competent offense, because Brooklyn didn\u2019t have one last season. They were dead last in the league in offensive rating, effective field goal percentage, true shooting and 3-point percentage.<\/p>\n

Julius Randle meets with the media after visiting The Brooklyn Basketball Training Center for their Back to School Clinic on Saturday, September 12, 2026, in Brooklyn, NY. J.C. Rice for NY Post<\/p>\n

But Fern\u00e1ndez has proven adept at wringing career years out of Cam Johnson two years ago and Porter last season. Now having Randle to pair with Porter should help the Nets, giving them an on-ball scorer and floor raiser they\u2019ve desperately needed.<\/p>\n

Though Randle tends to pound the ball \u2014 his 4.02 seconds per touch last season would\u2019ve trailed only point guards Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf \u2014 his game can accentuate Porter\u2019s. The latter was miscast as an on-ball threat, and is best suited cutting and shooting off the catch. That\u2019s why the pairing should work.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Just 9 percent of Porter\u2019s 3-point attempts were wide open according to the league website, the lowest among 307 players who took at least 100 attempts. But Randle was fourth \u2014 behind only Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic \u2014 in assists on 3-pointers over the past seven seasons.<\/p>\n

Randle has proven in the past he can be a bridge player \u2014 one to help a team transition from cellar dweller to competent \u2014 and a floor raiser.<\/p>\n

Now as the Nets come into training camp, it will be up to Fern\u00e1ndez to find ways to make Randle just that, to maximize his two proven talents.<\/p>\n

That process starts this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez is going into his third training camp in Brooklyn, and for the first time, he finally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,4570,17661,4600,21,9,24,63,319,63749],"class_list":["post-357769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-jordi-fernandez","tag-julius-randle","tag-michael-porter-jr","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sports","tag-training-camp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357769","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=357769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}