{"id":700339,"date":"2026-04-05T22:33:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700339\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T22:33:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T22:33:14","slug":"nets-win-tank-war-vs-wizards-but-keep-focus-on-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/700339\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets win tank war vs. Wizards, but keep focus on development"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday\u2019s Nets<\/a>-Wizards game at Barclays Center looked exactly like what it was on paper: two teams deep in the lottery, playing a late-season matchup with more draft implications than standings relevance.<\/p>\n

The Nets still treated it like a normal work day.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn beat Washington 121-115, picked up its 19th win and slipped in the lottery picture, falling into third place after what amounted to a tank war in plain sight. The Wizards dressed eight available players. The Nets had 10. Brooklyn was missing Ben Saraf, Terance Mann, Noah Clowney, Nic Claxton, Ziaire Williams, Michael Porter Jr<\/a>., Danny Wolf, Egor D\u00ebmin and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe. Washington was without Justin Champagnie, Tristan Vukcevic, Tre Johnson, Bilal Coulibaly, Trae Young, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, Anthony Davis, D\u2019Angelo Russell and Cam Whitmore.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the environment Nets coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez has been navigating all season, and it\u2019s also why he keeps returning to the same message when the record stops being the headline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always told the players from the first week that I was here that winning starts now,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cAnd for a lot of people, winning means different things. You can see a win on the standings \u2014 that\u2019s a win for some. Development can be a win. Real minutes in the NBA can be a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point, Fern\u00e1ndez said, is that Brooklyn isn\u2019t treating these games like something to simply get through. Even now, the \u201cnext game\u201d matters because it\u2019s still a chance to compete the right way and build habits that carry.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also why, even in a season like this, Brooklyn keeps framing the year through development. Rookies D\u00ebmin, Wolf, Saraf, Nolan Traor\u00e9 and Drake Powell have all played meaningful minutes and started games, and the organization has been able to leave the season with real notes on all five rather than guesses.<\/p>\n

Now, with injuries stacking up, the rotation has turned into a proving ground for the next tier. Two-way players and G League call-ups have been asked to do more than fill space, including Tyson Etienne, Chaney Johnson, E.J. Liddell, Trevon Scott and Malachi Smith. Smith\u2019s new multi-year contract, agreed to Saturday, is the clearest example of how this late-season runway can still change a career.<\/p>\n

Wolf, ruled out for the season Friday but still available for his exit interview before Sunday\u2019s game, didn\u2019t pretend the season has been enjoyable. He also didn\u2019t dismiss what it can produce for a young group.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,\u201d Wolf said when asked if the season was a success from a development standpoint. \u201cObviously, I think that losing sucks, and I think every time you ask anyone, they\u2019re going to give you the same answer that losing is no fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolf\u2019s view was that the record doesn\u2019t erase the lessons, especially for rookies going through the NBA grind for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think within that, you have to find some things that you can learn from, that you can gain from,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cWith such a young team, young group, I think we were able to learn some things about ourselves that will be able to carry over into the offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the backdrop Sunday, when the lineup card looked like a preseason list. The Nets had six players in double figures: Traor\u00e9, Powell, Liddell, Jalen Wilson<\/a>, Josh Minott and Ochai Agbaji. Will Riley led Washington with 30 points, four rebounds and six assists.<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez said the day-to-day has stayed consistent even as the losses have piled up and the roster has continued to change. His available players stepped up on Sunday, for better or worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that growth started months ago, but the plan still remains the same,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cThere\u2019s positive energy in the environment, which is good. Losing is always hard to deal with. At the same time, losing is part of winning. And if it really hurts, you\u2019re going to come back and you\u2019re going to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday\u2019s Nets-Wizards game at Barclays Center looked exactly like what it was on paper: two teams deep in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,562,6,671,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-700339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-michael-porter-jr","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets","15":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116354482516794668","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}