Jordi Fernandez’s Nets are 10-13, having now won in his first month half of what pundits thought his team would win all season. It’s been noticed.
Please don’t use the word, “outcoach” when talking about how Jordi Fernandez has bested some of the NBA’s top coaches. It would be disrespectful — Fernandez has only been a head coach for 23 games — but you certainly can think it. Others have.
After all, in the month of November, as Brian Lewis points out in his Sports+ column, the Nets and Fernandez posted victories over Doc Rivers’ Milwaukee Bucks, at Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors and at Mike Budenholzer’s Phoenix Suns, veterans who have six titles and four Coach of the Year trophies combined.
Beyond the x’s and o’s, Lewis notes that Fernandez has brought the best out of his players, including some NBA veterans.
[He is] getting career-best performances from a number of players, including leading scorer Cam Thomas (team-high 24.7 ppg), deadeye shooter Cam Johnson (18.5 ppg, 48.4 percent field-goal shooting, 43.1% from deep) and point guard Dennis Schröder (17.9 ppg and 6.3 apg).
Lewis spoke to a number of people about how the 41-year-old is doing so far as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, including his players who have been his biggest supporters. Of course, a number of those players may be gone by the trade deadline but in talking with others in the league, Lewis got a sense that Fernandez’s success is not so dependent on talent.
Lewis also sat down with advance scouts from around the league, the men and women who teams dispatch to opponents’ arenas to get an up-to-date look at how teams are faring, including their coaches.
Their opinions, provided on background, were unanimous. Jordi Fernandez is already a good head coach, limited experience or not.
“In the NBA that’s more important than Xs and Os,” one Eastern Conference scout said of developing a culture, an identity. “Yeah, that’s something that happens to all NBA teams at some point during the season. [Guys go] in and out. And that’s why it makes everybody important. That’s the NBA,”
“They’ve played over 20 games already. That’s a good number. I think that’s a good amount of games already to see what they want to be as a team.”
A second scout who Lewis spoke with agreed.
“When you coach, you want to make them do some things and take some things away,” that scout told Lewis. “I think Jordi is doing a great job, and the team, they look like they’re playing together and they like each other. It’s a good environment, so we will see what happens…”
As the Post beat writer points out, getting NBA players to go hard isn’t as easy as it might sound to an outsider. He cites what’s been going in L.A.. where another NBA rookie coach, J.J. Redick, has admitted to having difficulty in getting his Lakers to do just that. All-Star Tyrese Haliburton also noted after his Pacers lost ot the Nets that his guys aren’t playing hard enough. Like Rivers, Budenholzer and Kerr, the Pacers’ coach, Rick Carlisle, has a ring a COY trophy … and a loss to the Nets this season.
Earlier in the week, Fernandez was named a nominee for Eastern Conference Coach of the Month when went to Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson who the Nets dumped back in 2020.
“I didn’t know that,” Fernandez said when informed by The Post. “But it’s a good thing that I don’t have social media, for the good and the bad, right?”
He might not have known, but others around the league do.
- How Jordi Fernandez has instilled the power of belief in these Nets – Brian Lewis – New York Post Sports+