Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez heads into his second season in the NBA as a head coach and the Nets are in a similar position as last season. Brooklyn is expected to be one of the worst teams in the league during the 2025-26 season due to the lack of talent on the team, but Fernandez took some time to address some comments from the team’s owner.
“He says he wants a good draft pick because no matter where we pick, our front office is so good that we’re going to pick a very good player,” Fernandez said following Sunday’s 111-109 preseason win over the Phoenix Suns in Macao, China. Essentially, Nets governor Joe Tsai recently said in a podcast interview that he is hoping for a good draft pick in 2026, potentially implying that the team is embracing tanking under the surface.
“It’s been proven with Noah Clowney, J will, I mean, all these guys, our five guys we have here,” Fernandez continued. “He believes in the front office and then, we’re going to develop those guys. Whatever we pick, that’s why he’s excited, because we’re going to pick right.”
For someone like Fernandez, the Nets will try to win as many games as possible as he is trying to build his career as a head coach, whether that conflicts with general manager Sean Mark’s rebuild or not. As Fernandez alluded to, Brooklyn has plenty of players on the team that the franchise is hoping can fulfill their potential sooner rather than later given the current timeline.
The Nets come into the 2025-26 season with five first-round picks, but guard Egor Demin, the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, has not taken the floor yet due to his plantar fascia injury. Ultimately, how much Demin plays may not change the fact that Brooklyn could be headed towards a top-5 pick in the upcoming draft, but it seems that Fernandez is keeping his mind on notching the best record on the floor this season.