Make New York Post a Preferred Source Jordi Fernández is going into his third training camp in Brooklyn, and for the first time, he finally will get to coach.
That’s not to imply he has been sitting around doing nothing through his first two seasons with the Nets. But with them overtly tanking, it’s been far more teaching than coaching. That should change, starting with this training camp.
Make no mistake, the Nets are still a young, rebuilding team that’s going to be closer to the cellar than a championship, tabbed to be the third-worst in the league by oddsmakers.
But even if they aren’t likely to be a winning team, at least they’re going to try to be one. That should bring a different feeling into the preseason, and ultimately the regular season.
Michael Porter Jr. has proclaimed they can win 50 games, and newcomer Julius Randle vowed that they would “shock the world. … Whatever your expectations are, whatever expectations are put upon us, we’re going to exceed them.”
Fernández has told Randle — and presumably his team — as much.
“Just talking to [Fernández and GM Sean Marks], they’re really excited to have me here,” Randle said over the summer. “Jordi is really excited. He feels like we’ve got a chance to win every single game.”
Just ingraining that as an expectation will be one of the key tasks this training camp and preseason. There is a fine line between playing hard — which the Nets largely did last season — and expecting to win.
In essence, mentally putting the tank behind them.
Of course, winning in the short term is going to have to be driven by Porter and Randle. Coming off a 20-62 campaign, they’re projected to win just 19.5 to 24.5 this season, even challenging for the Play-In is unlikely. If either Porter or Randle get dealt, unlikely becomes all but impossible.
And a worry for Marks, not Fernández. His concern is coaching the players he has, for as long as he has them.
That means using training camp and the preseason to craft a competent offense, because Brooklyn didn’t have one last season. They were dead last in the league in offensive rating, effective field goal percentage, true shooting and 3-point percentage.
But Fernández has proven adept at wringing career years out of Cam Johnson two years ago and Porter last season. Now having Randle to pair with Porter should help the Nets, giving them an on-ball scorer and floor raiser they’ve desperately needed.
Though Randle tends to pound the ball — his 4.02 seconds per touch last season would’ve trailed only point guards Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf — his game can accentuate Porter’s. The latter was miscast as an on-ball threat, and is best suited cutting and shooting off the catch. That’s why the pairing should work.
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Just 9 percent of Porter’s 3-point attempts were wide open according to the league website, the lowest among 307 players who took at least 100 attempts. But Randle was fourth — behind only Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic — in assists on 3-pointers over the past seven seasons.
Randle has proven in the past he can be a bridge player — one to help a team transition from cellar dweller to competent — and a floor raiser.
Now as the Nets come into training camp, it will be up to Fernández to find ways to make Randle just that, to maximize his two proven talents.
