Fernandez Starts Tall Task To Get Nets To Play To His Vision
The cliché goes that you only get one chance to make a first impression. For rookie Head Coach Jordi Fernandez, these first few games were his opportunity to instill his vision of Nets basketball.
No one is expecting Fernandez’s club to win many games, and their 0-2 start after a pair of road contests in advance of Sunday’s home opener versus Milwaukee hasn’t disappointed the many fans on board with the season’s tanking mission for the most optimal choice in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Still, this fan is watching how Fernandez manages such a difficult task. With so little creative talent in house, he must walk a tightrope to avoid an early mutiny, but he must also impose some level of accountability. Give a player an inch on one unfocused possession, and before you know it, the whole team is jogging back on transition defense.
I did find it head-scratching that the one player Fernandez criticized following the Nets 116-101 defeat in Orlando on Friday night (though it might have been because it was the only player whom a reporter specifically asked about) was sophomore forward Jalen Wilson, who saw only 13 minutes of action after notching 16 points in 34 minutes during the prior 120-116 loss in Atlanta. Wilson seems to be one player whom effort isn’t a variable. He gets after loose balls and sticks his nose in the paint to battle bigger players for rebounds.
If Fernandez wasn’t pleased with Wilson’s defense, why did he task him with point-of-attack responsibilities on Hawks elusive point guard Trae Young so often in the opener? That’s a tough matchup for most NBA defenders, especially one like Wilson whose foot speed isn’t his strength.
In this case, Fernandez could have applied the same standard to others. Why not get on Dennis Schroder, a more appropriate defensive option against Young? After all, NBA.com’s tracking, which showed how Young fared against his closest defenders, had him going for 7 points and 5 assists on 3-for-6 shooting versus Schroder and just 3 points and zero assists on 1-for-3 shooting against Wilson (all NBA.com stats come with the standard small sample size disclaimer).
We don’t know what Fernndez says behind closed locker room doors, but here are other areas that deserved more of his candor:
Ball Insecurity
Brooklyn’s average of 19 turnovers per game would have put them dead last in 2023-24, by a country mile. It’s not just the number that was so disturbing, but also the how and the why.
Too many turnovers were simply careless, the result of terrible ball security off the bounce, where defenders had a field day picking pockets, or poorly executed passes. 22 of them were opponent steals, feeding fast break opportunities going the other way.
Schroder and Ben Simmons, the Nets’ primary ballhandlers, combined for 17 turnovers over the two games. Fernandez offered the fatigue excuse from the frenetic pace he demands, but he should know better from watching the film. Schroder has the Spencer Dinwiddie disease of thinking he is better than he is and too often acting on it. The results, from not just lost the possessions due to turnovers, but also from the missed shots at the rim where he ends up on the ground, allow for the opposition to run upcourt with numbers. It’s part of the reason why he was on seven different teams in seven seasons.
As a pending unrestricted free agent, Schroder has a real opportunity here to showcase his game to his next employer. As he showed for Team Germany in international competition (and in stepping up for Simmons when a Magic fan confronted him in the hallway following Friday night’s game), he is a far better leader than his reputation. It would be a shame if his penchant for doing too much with the ball in his hands undermines that. And it’s on Fernandez to remind him of that when warranted.
As for Simmons, his 10 turnovers deserved more of a reprimand. This team continues to treat him with kid gloves due to his history of physical and mental issues. Sorry, but since he clearly shouldn’t be part of Brooklyn’s future, he needs to be told to play the right way or face minutes consequences. Fernandez mentioned to the media Simmons’ lack of aggression in attempting to finish drives at the rim, but not the reckless passes. And no, the exquisite dimes that created 11 assists over the two games did not make up for it.
Furthermore…
Simmons Roaming D
Does anyone know what Simmons is doing on defense? Oh, at times he will flash the skills that made him a two-time All-NBA Defensive first Team honoree during his Philadelphia days before his two back surgeries. He can still lock people of different sizes up in one-on-one coverage.
Then there will be possessions where he will suddenly leave his man to go double someone else’s. Is that pre-planned? I would think not, because it typically left the rest of his teammates at a severe disadvantage, especially when Simmons is the de facto center as the lineup’s tallest member. Against Atlanta, the Nets had a putrid 61.9% defensive rebounding percentage during the 24 minutes with Simmons on the floor and 76% when he was off.
Simmons’ size and athleticism allow him to create some deflections, but I can’t recall any time that his random doubling has led to a Nets steal. Fernandez should tell him to just play hard, straight up defense and communicate in advance if you plan to go off schedule.
Foul Play
Fernandez had a point that there are ways for the Nets to cut down on their league-high 31.5 average fouls per game. 79 free throw attempts by Brooklyn opponents through two games is excessive and the team can’t count on a 70.9% free throw defense, the second lowest in the league, to be sustainable.
I can see how better hand placement, greater familiarity with defensive concepts, improved conditioning, and, in the case of Nic Claxton’s flagrant foul ejection in Atlanta (and some of Simmons’ antics), better discipline will bear fruit over the course of the season, as Fernandez suggested.
But the reason for my cross out above is that I actually have no problem with Brooklyn fouling more than the average team. Hey, if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin, right?
From my perspective, the Nets need to play with more physicality than they did in prior seasons. In fact, I used the Nets low foul numbers last season as evidence of their general laissez faire attitude towards defense. The stats showed that they defended with greater efficiency when fouling more.
That’s because to succeed on D in the NBA, you need to bump cutters and sometimes grab hold of them—the “make them feel you” plea from past Nets coaches that so often went disregarded. Other teams like Miami go with “the refs can’t call everything” strategy, even if it mucks up the game. If former ESPN writer Zach Lowe had his NBA League Pass rankings for this season, I’d have to believe Toronto, which treated its preseason contest with Brooklyn like it was a rugby scrum, would be at the bottom.
The downside is that many of these games could be interminable. I forgot to extend the DVR for Friday’s game past the YES Network window and couldn’t believe that Nets/Magic still had six minutes to go after 2.5 hours.
This is one Nets season you where want it to be quick and painless. Fernandez, though, has other concerns.