Nets Fernandez Hire Shows Marks Is Willing To Go Down Swinging At His Pitch
When an X follower complained about the Nets’ penchant for playing small since Sean Marks took over as General Manager back in 2016, I reminded him that they were experimenting with a Twin Towers frontcourt of Nic Claxton and Noah Clowney. So maybe an old dog can learn new tricks.
Then came Marks’ head coaching search to replace interim HC Kevin Ollie, who took over for Jacque Vaughn at the All-Star break. As much as I tried to promote the candidacy of Mike Budenholzer, who won a 2021 Championship ring while piloting Milwaukee, I knew in my soul that it wasn’t going to happen. I hinted at it when I noted in my last post that we wouldn’t know the decision until a certain team was eliminated from the playoffs.
Well, I was wrong about the timing, but ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday night that Brooklyn will be going with Sacramento’s lead assistant Jordi Fernandez, yet another first-time NBA coach hire by Marks. Only Vaughn, whom Marks placed on the staffs of Kenny Atkinson and Steve Nash before being elevated to interim HC and then the full-time gig after seven games of the 2022-23 campaign, had previous experience, albeit a losing one, running an NBA sideline.
By taking a chance on Fernandez, who must wait for the Kings to be eliminated from the postseason before commencing his work with Brooklyn, Marks can maintain the same level of influence over things like the hiring of assistants and macro style of play mandates. A strong coach like Budenholzer—and like Ty Lue and Tom Thibodeau when they should have been under consideration during the 2020 offseason—might have their own ideas on such matters. They want to bring in their guys, not staffers who owe their jobs to the GM. The New York Post’s Brian Lewis wrote that it is believed that Budenholzer had the longest list of demands of any of the candidates, which likely overrode any connection he had with Marks from their days together in San Antonio.
It’s been widely reported that Marks has Nets owner Joseph Tsai’s full trust. If Marks felt strongly about a certain candidate, I have no doubt that he had the ability to sway Tsai in that direction, no matter the difference in resume.
Look, it’s not like Fernandez is Nash, who never coached at any level before being inexplicably charged by his friend Marks with a win-now team. Fernandez, 41, started his coaching career in his native Spain and has worked his way up the ladder to earn this opportunity. He advanced from a development guy to a G-League Head Coach before joining Michael Malone’s staff in Denver in 2016. Fernandez left for the Kings’ job prior to the 2022-23 season, starting with coaching duties for their Summer League team.
Fernandez cemented his status as an up-and-comer by leading Team Canada to a Bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, defeating the U.S. Men’s National Team for the hardware. It was Canada’s first medal at a major global competition since 1936. That run enabled him to retain the job for this summer’s Olympic Games in France.
Cam Johnson aside, who implied in Monday’s exit interview with the media that the Nets weren’t a well-run unit this season, you’re usually not going to find detractors of coaches going on the record, less so for assistants. Fernandez is no exception—he has drawn raves from both Malone and Sacramento HC Mike Brown. More importantly, in a poll of NBA GMs before the season, Fernandez was named the league’s best assistant coach with 31% of the votes.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t allay my fears as a Nets fan. I don’t see how this is going to give the team the short-term boost it needs to become an attractive destination following such a miserable season. As such, I have already lowered my expectations for this offseason.
Some have assumed that this is Marks’ last chance at a HC hire—this will be Brooklyn’s fifth coaching change (including interims) in six seasons—though I’m not so sure. The Vaughn disaster might have been the last straw in other organizations, yet Marks evidently remains on solid ground here. Still, it would be a bad look for him if he also gets this wrong.
But if he does, he’ll go down swinging at his pitch.