NetsDaily Off-Season Report - No. 17
We’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season weekly, with bits and pieces of information, gossip, and everything in between to help fans get ready for ... anything. Sean Marks’ biggest acquisition of the off-season was not the five future first round picks and first round swap the Brooklyn Nets got from the cross-river rivals. Nor was it the rejiggering of draft assets with the Houston Rockets that got the Nets GM two firsts they had given up in the James Harden trade three years back. Those were huge deals for the Nets rebuilding strategy, but no.
His biggest acquisition was the signing of Jordi Fernandez, the former associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings and current head coach of Team Canada, for Brooklyn’s top job. In addition to Fernandez, the Nets hired six new assistants, two from the Kings staff, all of them development oriented. The hire was universally praised.
“Jordi is going to save him,” said one league source of Marks. “He hit the jackpot with him.”
Indeed, there’s no one more important to the on-court product than the head coach and Marks record with head coach is not so good. The Nets may be paying three head coaches, this season: Fernandez as well as Steve Nash and Jacque Vaughn, both dispatched before the end of their contracts. (The record, according to one Nets inside source, is four.)
Fernandez will be guiding the development of the younger Nets on this year’s roster as well as trying to win some games. Not too many, have you, but enough to show his head coaching chops. After all, the four firsts and two seconds they have in the 2025 NBA Draft is just one of their assets looking forward to next summer. As Bobby Marks has noted, the Nets will be the only NBA team next summer with significant cap space to spend on free agents and work with in trades. if Fernandez shows he’s a solid head coach, that will go a long way to making the Nets an attractive destination again.
So what will we be looking for when the 41-year-old takes the reins come October? Brian Lewis in a New York Post Sports Extra this weekend tries to glean some intelligence from what Fernandez has shown so far, from the Nets Summer League strategy to his tenure with Team Canada.
The most obvious takeaway from talking to his young charges, per Lewis, is that the Brooklyn Nets will be aggressive.
“Just playing fast … playing together,” Summer League MVP Jalen Wilson told The Post. “Playing fast, but knowing what you’re doing as well. I think the intelligence of where you are on the floor and understanding what defenses are in, different things like that all play into it.
“But I think the main part is playing fast, playing confident. Not being out there settling and not being unsure of anything. But everything at full speed and understanding that you’ve got to attack in everything … whether it’s shooting, dribbling, finding the open teammate, running down the floor sprinting to the corner, those different things.”
Wilson also told Lewis that there will be a greater emphasis on practice, getting the reps so you can get things down.
“Yeah, I’d say reps,” Wilson said of what the team has been stressing. “Reps in practice, before Summer League, leading up to Summer League, and reps now.
“A lot of it was just up and down drills, being in the right place, doing everything full speed and at high intensity, not taking anything for granted, and just understand that if you slouch in the practice, in the game it won’t be at full speed. And when it’s full speed in the game, you’ve got to be ready and prepared.”
Noah Clowney who’s also blessed with young legs agreed.
“We want to play fast, want to play hard,” said second-year pro Noah Clowney, just 20. “We want to be disruptive. We know we’ve got to be a great defensive team if we want any shot at winning games, and that’s just the reality of it. Nobody’s got to sugarcoat that for us. We understand that.”
Offense WILL be a challenge. The Nets lose Mikal Bridges who despite his end-of-the-season somnambulance, was capable of blowing up in a game. They have Cam Thomas, of course, and maybe Cam Johnson who with a larger role and good health could be called on to average in the high teens. Bojan Bogdanovic did average 20 points a game in his last two years with Detroit and IF, IF, he’s healthy, Ben Simmons can distribute the ball. Even in his limited role last season, when Simmons was on the court with Thomas, the 22-year-old put up 24.9 points a game.
No one, however, thinks this team will be anything other than offensively challenged —- and we”re being kind. As Lewis notes, their offensive rating was just 23rd in the NBA last season, and 25th after Kevin Ollie took over following Vaughn’s departure at the All-Star break. So, the team will rely on the other piece of Fernandez’s reputation as a defensive coach. In Sacramento, he was the de facto defensive coordinator. Lewis writes:
He helped guide the Kings to a vast improvement on that end, jumping from 24th in defensive rating in 2022-23 to 14th this past season with no significant upgrades to the roster.
Fernandez spent much of the summer coaching Team Canada into the Paris Olympics, where the team went unbeaten in the so-called Group of Death, thanks in large part to its defense,
“He wants guys to be more dominant on the ball, taking their matchups more personal,” Keon Johnson said at Summer League. “And then also relying on the help behind you, knowing that if you do try and gamble or even if you do get beat, you’ve got guys behind you knowing that they’ll make a play behind you.
“[So], winning from a defensive standpoint, just because for me that’s something I hang my hat on, and that’s just something I naturally just watch whenever I get the chance to turn the TV on. So just seeing how he got [Canada] playing defensively and in the system together, I mean, I see it translating over to Brooklyn.”
There was some criticism of Fernandez among Canadian fans and beat writers following the semi-finals loss to France. The main issue for the critics was that he didn’t adjust quickly enough to French coach Vincent Collet’s decision to re-direct the offense from Victor Wembanyama to his perimeter play. It was a risky decision, but it worked.
Josh Lewenberg, the veteran Raptors beat writer who covered Team Canada in Paris, put it this way.
Vincent Collet, confirmed that the plan was always to downsize their lineup to match Canada’s speed and athleticism.
It was a bold move, to veer away from your perceived strength as a team during such a critical point in the tournament, but they executed it well and it paid off ...
On the opposite bench, Jordi Fernandez spent most of the night searching for answers. It had been an impressive tournament for Canada’s head coach, but on Tuesday, he cycled through 11 of his 12 players in the first 16 minutes alone.
Of course, the game was played before 27,000 screaming French fans in Lille, giving the home team an advantage and the free throw disparity was egregious particularly in the first half when France established itself.
Fernandez, however, took responsibility, saying post-game the loss was on him, which is always refreshing to hear.
“Personally, I put this one on me because I should have helped them better. Better with two ball handlers. Better with getting better shots. Better with playing with better pace. And I couldn’t find a way. It starts with me, then we’ll come back strong.”
Fernandez in his valedictory comments on Team Canada also has relevance for his likely challenges in Brooklyn. Bottom line: you have to go through the tough times before you can move on.
‘[T]here’s always some disappointment at some point. You don’t know how much you can do until you go through tough times,” Fernandez said of his Canadian club. “I think we’ve had success because we’ve won a lot of games in the last two years. But in this tough time we cannot forget. We cannot forget how this feels. And that’s how we move on.”
Numbers please
There’s been no official announcement but it appears — at least from the Nets official site’s roster page — that the newest Nets have now chosen new uniform numbers. Ziaire Williams will apparently wear No. 1, Mikal Bridges old number. In addition to the Nets roster page, promotional material for Williams on-going summer camp shows him wearing the single digit.
Shake Milton is going with No. 13 and Bojan Bogdanovic will don No. 44, the same number he wore in his first tour with the Nets a decade back. Jaylen Martin, the Nets lone two way so far, has chosen No 16.
Roster status
Nothing new other than speculation on whether the Nets will bring all their veteran players into camp. There’s been plenty of speculation about Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. The punditocracy tells us that Sean Marks wants a lot for the two veterans, more apparently than teams are (currently) willing to give and may simply hold on to them till the deadline. One report this week had the Nets wanting two firsts for DFS. Seems rich but then again, Marks declined all offers for Mikal Bridges until the Knicks wowed them. There’s been a paucity of speculation on what the Nets want for Johnson. Bobby Marks has said the presence of so many incentives in CamJ’s deal has rival GMs who are close to the cap, threshold or apron concerned. If Johnson reaches those incentives, it could push them into the next circle of CBA hell.
DFS’s case is a bit more urgent than Johnson who’s under contract for another three seasons, fully guaranteed. Finney-Smith has a player option next July at $15.4 million. If he’s still playing at a high level this season, he will likely opt out next summer leaving the Nets with nothing. If his production tails off, however, he might opt in. Guaranteed money is guaranteed money. A DFS departure could also open up minutes for Ziaire Williams and Trendon Watford, both of whom are on expiring deals.
Also nothing new on the two Nets on big expiring deals: Bojan Bogdanovic is being paid $19.0 million this year; Dennis Schroder will get $13.0. Magic fans would like to see Schroder in Orlando considering his great chemistry with the Wagner brothers in international play for Germany ... and their need for a point guard. In addition, the next German national team will likely feature a new member of the Magic, Tristan da Silva, drafted by Orlando in June. Speculation that the Nets might buy out Bogdanovic appear to be nothing but that, speculation. He’ll be back in Brooklyn next month after he plays in a Drazen Petrovic commemoration on September 5, Yes, of course, things can change.
We don’t know when the Nets will fill their out their two-way vacancies — beyond Jaylen Martin. Also, there’s a couple of Exhibit 10 spots, training camp invites, open as well. It’s possible that the Nets will use training camp as an audition for the two-way spots. Mark Armstrong, Villanova’s 6’2” point guard, and KJ Jones II, the 6’6” Division II player of the year at Emmanuel, have already been signed to Exhibit 10 deals.
One quick note: Killian Hayes, as a fifth year player, is not eligible for a two-way. The French point guard, who just turned 23, is currently on an Exhibit 10 deal. So unless he can break into the 15-man roster, there will be no room for him on the big club’s roster. He could wind up as an affiliate player in Long Island with the Nets only holding his G League rights. Or he could return to Europe, which would pay him much better wages no doubt.
Charts, tables and graphs
It’s that time of year.
With much of the NBA on vacation and training camp still a month or so away, those of us who cover the sport busy ourselves with rankings and ratings, all of which are perishable once the ball goes up in late October. We published such a story this week re-grading the big trades of the past five years. The Nets trade of Kevin Durant was rated an A++++ because of how much Sean Marks got for him and how the assets from the trade — everything from the draft pick that became Noah Clowney to the throwaway contract that became Ziaire Williams (and another pick.)
Among the others that were published recently was one from Bleacher Report that ranked each team on how much it’s spent in recent years, from No. 1, the Warriors to No. 30, the Charlotte Hornets. The ranking, per author Eric Pincus, is based on teams’ “net tax bill from 2017-2024, their postseason track record and their projected tax bill for the upcoming season.”
The Nets, who have paid out $171 million in luxury taxes since 2017, rank No. 4, behind only the Warriors, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Milwaukee Bucks. Here’s what Pincus wrote about the Nets:
Recently, the Nets have gone of their way to shed salary, get out of the tax and even trade their best player to the Knicks (Bridges). Credit to the team for recognizing it was time to rebuild.
Brooklyn tried to win with Kevin Durant, Harden and Irving and paid taxes for three years, but it ran its course (as did the brief Bridges-led squad). The Nets project to have more financial flexibility next offseason than any other franchise. What they do with that spending power remains to be seen.
Cheap or No? No, and respect for quickly accepting the inevitable.
A quick footnote: The analysis doesn’t take into account the amenities teams provide to players. According to several league sources, the Nets are near the top of that list.
That’s the good news. There’s a lot more on the other side.
Among the analyses of recent vintage is Kristian Winfield’s 2024 NBA Power Rankings, out Sunday. Winfield who covered the Nets for the Daily News and is now covering the Knicks has Brooklyn last.
The Nets didn’t reacquire their first-round picks from the James Harden trade for nothing. Sean Marks knows this team is heading for a rough season. With some Draft Lottery luck, the Nets could turn their haul of 15 first-round picks (thanks to the Kevin Durant and Mikal Bridges deals) into the No. 1 pick and Cooper Flagg in next year’s draft. But will the potential payoff justify a bleak season at Barclays Center?
One bright spot: Cam Thomas, the explosive scorer who could keep fans engaged in a season likely filled with losses.
Similarly, Brian Lewis notes this weekend that the Nets are “projected to win an NBA-worst 19.5 games this coming season by all major sportsbooks.”
Not to mention ESPN’s recent poll of NBA insiders which projects the Nets with 22 wins and NBA2K25 which gave the Nets its lowest overall ratings.
There will be more in the coming weeks, the dual themes being, “things suck now, but the future looks good.” How do you deal with this as a fan? Hope for the best, of course. Dare we say, “trust the process?” Find things that are encouraging and embrace them. But don’t be pollyannish. It’s going to be bad.
Final Note
Who better than Tim Capstraw to offer Joe Harris the praise the deserves. Not just for his shooting and his hard work but for his reckless abandon, his competitive spirit ...
Thank you, Joe Harris. @JoeHarris4 pic.twitter.com/2tqZZNh920— Tim Capstraw (@TimCapstraw) August 24, 2024
Hoping to see you around Barclays Center this year, Joey Buckets
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