Nets to Hire Kings Assistant Jordi Fernandez as Head Coach
The Brooklyn Nets have their next head coach in Jordi Fernandez, the now-former associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings. The Nets fired Jacque Vaughn in season before turning to Kevin Ollie, who made a serious run at becoming the team's HC.
Fernandez has coached under Kevin Malone in Denver and Mike Brown in Sacramento, with Malone saying the following:
"I think one day Jordi will be a head coach in this league. He's been a head coach in the G League. He's got incredible international experience. This team is on the right path with the right coaches, so I'm happy for them."
- Kevin Malone
ESPN Sources: Jordi Fernandez has emerged as the Brooklyn Nets’ choice to become the franchise’s next coach, separating himself in a wide, month-long search that now has the Nets prepared to hire the Sacramento Kings’ top assistant. pic.twitter.com/VHqXY9AYsb
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 16, 2024
Fernandez is known as a defensive specialist around the NBA while also being adept at developing players. Fernandez will be tasked with the latter as the Nets look to rebuild despite a serious lack of young players and draft picks.
Helping Fernandez defensively will be Mikal Bridges, who averaged 1.0 steals per game and Ben Simmons if he's able to stay healthy.
Recently, Fernandez has served as the Canadian National team's coach where he led the team to the Bronze Medal in 2023.
For the Nets, they should be patient with Fernandez as the team tries to rebuild after tearing down their core of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. It's exciting that the team went with the up and coming coach rather than hiring another retread HC.
Who will Fernandez have to work with?
The Brooklyn Nets have an interesting offseason ahead of them as Nic Claxton, Dennis Smith Jr, Lonnie Walker, Trendon Watford, and Keon Johnson hit unrestricted free agency. The Nets also have no draft picks in this year's draft making a rebuild even harder to execute.
Brooklyn may look to move on from some of their players in order to accumulate draft capital with seemingly no one off the table. According to Spotrac, the Nets enter the offseason $33 million over the salary cap, making this summer very interesting as the team will certainly undergo massive changes.
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