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The Brooklyn Nets are reportedly closing in on hiring Jordi Fernandez as their next head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn
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
Fernandez, who is currently an assistant for the Sacramento Kings, would take over a Nets team that finished 32-50 in 2023-24 while missing the playoffs.
Brooklyn is trying to move past the failed superteam era, in which the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden was brought in to lead the Nets to championship glory.
Those three rarely played together (largely due to injuries and the team’s ban of Irving because of his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19), and the Nets ultimately won just one playoff series with any of them on the roster.
The February 2023 midseason trades of both Irving and Durant signaled the end of that era.
That 2022-23 season also saw the firing of head coach Steve Nash. Brooklyn then named Jacque Vaughn the interim head coach before quickly making him the full-time leader in November 2022.
Brooklyn finished 2022-23 with a 45-37 and a first-round loss in four games to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The 2023-24 season started with some promise (13-10 record), but the wheels soon fell off. An 8-23 run led to the firing of Vaughn, and ex-UConn head coach Kevin Ollie took over. Ollie led the Nets to an 11-17 finish.
It was certainly a disappointing result for the team, although expectations weren’t very high to begin with as the franchise searched for a new direction after just closing a failed championship window.
Word emerged as the season ended that general manager Sean Marks would be returning and conducting an “exhaustive, leaguewide search” for a new head coach, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post.
Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic reported Saturday that ex-Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, Phoenix Suns associate head coach Kevin Young and Fernandez were among the finalists for the Nets’ gig.
And now their new head coach has seemingly been found.
The 41-year-old Fernandez has been the Sacramento Kings’ associate head coach since 2022 and the Canadian men’s basketball team’s head coach since 2023. He previously worked as a Denver Nuggets assistant coach from 2016 to 2022.
Fernandez brings some head coaching experience, leading the G League’s Canton Charge to 31-19 records in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Fernandez has found success in all of his recent stops, and now he gets a well-deserved chance to become an NBA head coach for the first time.
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