March 14, 2026, 12:29 p.m. ET

PHILADELPHIA — The Brooklyn Nets are at the point of the season where they are more concerned with evaluating the back-end of the roster, especially now that the team has been eliminated from postseason contention. Thanks to some unfortunate injuries along the way, Brooklyn has had to call on more players to absorb the vacated minutes and one of those players could make his NBA debut.

“There’s a reason why we’ve had him into the club, right? The way he’s played, he played in a winning group with Long Island,” Fernandez said of guard Malachi Smith prior to Saturday’s game at the Philadelphia 76ers. The Nets signed Smith to a 10-day contract on Friday and now, he could see some playing for a Brooklyn team missing plenty of rotation pieces for the afternoon matchup.

“He’s played the right way, impacted the game, not just scoring or shooting threes, but also assisting and rebounding, so [we’re] giving him the chance to do it at this level,” Fernandez continued on Smith. Not only is there playing time to be had for Smith, but for forward Josh Minott, he could find himself playing more off the bench if not potentially being in the starting lineup at some point before this season ends.

“He did a great job, and he took advantage of his minutes. I think he’s done it regardless, even. The other stint that he played, we asked him to pressure the ball and pick up full-court and he did,” Fernandez said of Minott, who’s coming off scoring a career-high 24 points in Thursday’s 108-97 loss at the Atlanta Hawks. “I still think his ceiling is much higher. But, I think these games again are very good for us and for these guys to have the opportunity to play more.”

Excluding rookie guard Egor Demin and backup center Day’Ron Sharpe, the Nets have ruled out three players that normally see rotation minutes ahead of Saturday’s matchup against the 76ers. Given that Philadelphia is also missing plenty of its rotation as well, this could be a game where Minott and Smith get to show more of what they can do if they are played for an extended period of time.

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