Back in his first rebuild, Sean Marks found a couple of diamonds in the rough, guys like Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris, made a few smart draft picks after a few smart trades. Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen and Nic Claxton stand out. And he along with Kenny Atkinson rehabilitated one NBA player who had fallen on tough times: D’Angelo Russell, taking him from pariah to All-Star in two years.

This time around is different. First of all, this rebuild is coming off the disastrous Big Three era and the trade of Mikal Bridges. That level of failure can change strategies. On the other side of the coin, back then, the Nets had no picks for three years when Marks took up residence in 2016, This time, he has 32 picks over the next seven. The team hasn’t yet developed any free agents on the Dinwiddie/Harris scale at least as of yet. And of course, Atkinson is long gone, followed by two coaches for whom winning now compelled less focus on development.

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However, as Steve Lichtenstein argues in his Steve’s Newsletter Friday, there is an interesting anology between D’Lo and MPJ: Michael Porter Jr. D’Lo’s brief, uneventful stretch in L.A. ended with him being accused of snitching on teammate Nick Young, leading to locker room isolation and a trade to Brooklyn. MPJ didn’t have anything like that in his past but his blogging has not been seen as positive. Moreover, the Nuggets wanted to move on from him and forge a new identity. He was tired, Cam Johnson with his all around game was wired.

So far, so good. Like Russell, Porter has been rejuvenated in Brooklyn. Unlike Russell, Porter hasn’t been invited to an NBA All-Star Game appearance but one may be coming soon. Again, the head coach has been key.

Porter’s overall numbers going into Saturday evening’s game vs. the New Orleans Pelicans are all career highs, and as Lichtenstein points out. they’ve gotten better since Cam Thomas went down with a hamstring sprain which many thought would cripple the offense.

Porter is averaging career highs in points (25.3), rebounds (7.5), and assists (3.2) per game. Since last season’s leading scorer Cam Thomas injured his hamstring a month ago, Porter has taken his production to another gear despite the constant focus from opponents, boosting his points to 27.2 per game on an exceptional 50/41.4/84.4 shooting split.

The Nets have made a point of it as well, noting Porter’s numbers since November 5, the game CamT went down, are “one of one” in the NBA.

Digging even deeper, Lichtenstein has found even more positives.

Porter’s playmaking is a relatively new and, given his preseason comments, most surprising acquisition to his bag. I’m particularly intrigued by his rapport with center Nic Claxton, who typically acts as the hub of Brooklyn’s offense from the top of the key. According to NBA.com’s tracking, Claxton was the teammate credited with the most assists (42) on Porter buckets this season. And vice versa (17 Porter assists to Claxton).

In the absence of anyone on the court who can use the dribble to force help and rotations that lead to ball swings for open looks, Fernandez has had to scheme plays to free his best offensive player. What he came up with was a way to leverage Porter’s gravity and cutting ability through an endless series of movements and dribble handoffs. Among the 355 players who have played more than 10 games this season, only 10 have run more miles per game on the offensive end than Porter, per NBA.com. (Emphasis added.)

And unlike Thomas, Lichtenstein notes that Porter does not hold on to the ball. Indeed, he writes, Porter has taken just 11 shots after a touch plus six seconds, or 26 fewer than Thomas has despite ten more games played, per NBA.com. Our Lucas Kaplan pointed out the same thing in his analysis of the Nets recent play, Thomas before he went down, averaged 4.14 seconds per touch, second-highest on the Nets while MPG is at 2.09 seconds per touch, third-lowest. Lucas also points out that the Nets average 27.6 assists per 100 possessions with him on the court, down to 22.8 without him.

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Porter who worked with Fernandez for five years in the Denver organization recently credited the head coach’s strategy with a lot of his success, calling him a “genius,” particularly in developing offensive schemes. No more “standing in the corner,” as he described his time with Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray.

“Well, I think Jordi — he’s a genius of a coach,” MPJ said after the Nets beat the Hornets. “You know, we’re a young team, we’re going to keep growing, but he’s a genius in terms of the schemes that he puts out, especially offensively for me.

“The way teams are guarding me, really just face-guarding me and trying not to let me catch the ball, the different creative ways that Jordi has our team running plays to help me get touches and get looks off is really next level. He’s making it so easy for me to play my game. So I really have to thank just Jordi and the offensive coaching staff for how I’ve been able to produce.”

Carrying the analogy a bit further, D’Lo in his second stint with Brooklyn last season also called Fernandez a genius.

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How long will Porter’s dominance go on? Will things change when Thomas returns (a timeframe likely to be measured in weeks) or will he be traded for more assets, his value never higher. Trade season begins in 10 days. And considering that MPJ is only 27, is there a chance that he might become a long-term piece in this Nets rebuild?

Fernandez has pushed Porter both publicly and privately. He even suggested that the Missouri product could be among the league scoring leaders this season, maybe even an All-Star, like D’Lo.

In that first rebuild, Russell, bolstered by Atkinson’s confidence-building, became a key piece, maybe even the key piece that brought the Nets to the brink of the Clean Sweep He led a young Brooklyn team to a 42-win season and a sixth seed in the 2019 playoffs, something virtually no one, including ownership and management, expected at the beginning of that season.

No one is expecting THAT from Porter, but the two rebuilds could bear resemblance in that good coaching — and development — are very often a deciding factor when free agents or unhappy stars are considering their next venue. Kevin Durant said that when he joined the Nets in 2019.

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Too often, development is seen as something that applies only to young players, not veterans, but in the case of Porter and Russell before him, it can be the special sauce to advance a rebuild. Moreover, Lichtenstein argues that Fernandez’s work with MPJ, Noah Clowney and the Flatbush Five “has been reviving the organization’s reputation for development akin to the early days of the Sean Marks era with HC Kenny Atkinson.”

For fans, even those obsessed with tanking for the Draft’s big three or enthralled with the Flatbush 5, that should be of equal interest.