By all reports, Jordi Fernandez's tenure as Nets head coach appears to be off to a promising start.
Veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith praised Fernandez's attention to detail in early practices. Second-year forward Noah Clowney likes how hands-on Fernandez is with his on-court instruction. Other younger players view Fernandez as a coach who can help them unlock certain aspects of their game on both ends of the court.
“As a young player, you always want a coach that believes in development,” second-year forward Darik Whitehead said of Fernandez, “Just knowing you've got a coach that's coming from the same place that he was last year and believes in the development process and trusts the process and knows it's hard.”
But Fernandez has been away in recent weeks preparing to lead Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris later this month, and is not expected to return to Brooklyn until mid-August.
General manager Sean Marks fully supported Fernandez's Olympic commitment when he was officially hired in April, he thinks the more opportunities Fernandez has with the clipboard the better, and his stance on the situation hasn't changed.
The chance to lead the national team would be a dream come true for any aspiring head coach, but for Fernandez, Marks wasn't going to take that away from him, but Fernandez's absence has put the Nets in a bit of an awkward position this summer.
“It's definitely weird not having a head coach,” Whitehead said.
The Nets are trying to build continuity with their new coaching regime, which can be tough to do when your head coach isn't with the team, even if it's just temporarily, but the team seems to be managing just fine despite it.
The team has put together a “robust” offseason program for its players and has relied heavily on newly hired assistants, including Steve Hetzel, Fernandez's bench coach and now head coach of the summer league team, and Juwan Howard, whose reputation is testament to his work.
“It's been great,” second-year forward Jalen Wilson said of Hetzel's leadership in Fernandez's absence. “His enthusiasm, his attention to detail. [he has] “He's given us all the information we need to know moving forward this summer. From day one, he's been very energetic, watching film and wanting to get our players better in every way on the court. So it's been great to have him around and hear his thoughts and it's a great opportunity for us to have him coach us this summer.”
Howard played 19 seasons in the NBA, winning two championships with the Heat, was an assistant under Erik Spoelstra for six seasons and most recently served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Michigan. As expected, his basketball experience has been an invaluable asset to the Nets so far.
“I enjoy picking his brain and seeing how smart he is and how knowledgeable he is about the game,” Whitehead said. “I love talking to him because he's such a positive guy. He never brings any negative energy to practice. If he's having issues outside of practice, you never know. Always positive, always pushing us to be our best selves, and he looks at us like we're his kids and he's been coaching us for years, so that's one of the things I admire about him is that he always comes in with the right attitude and pushes us to be our best selves.”
In addition to the contributions of Hetzel, Howard and the rest of the team, Fernandez has been in constant contact with the staff and has worked with the front office from afar. The Nets players will be in capable hands until Fernandez returns, but he'll likely continue to have the players' ear in any way possible until then.
“He texted me the other day,” Whitehead said after practice last Tuesday. “Practice wasn't going very well. He texted me and said we needed to get back to practice. He texted me that he watched practice and it led to a great practice. He texted everybody at about 2 or 3 in the morning, I think they'd just gotten off practice. We came to the practice field and we talked about it and what he texted us and we got it back on the next day. So having the head coach involved while he's not here physically is huge for us, especially with a young team.”
