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After two tanking seasons, almost 120 losses and one hand tied behind his back by his own organization, Jordi Fernández will finally get to do his job.
For the first time he’ll be coaching a non-tanking team, one with at least a chance to win every night, starting with Wednesday’s opener against Charlotte.
Yes, that means for the first time since coming to Brooklyn in April 2024, there will be expectations on Fernández and urgency around his Nets. But that has him more excited than anxious.
“Yeah, more [excited]. I think anxiety is usually negative. It’s a good sense of urgency. It’s positive. It’s excited about something,” Fernández said. “We cannot think that all this feeling is going to take us to do something wrong. It’s just control what you can control, the excitement.
“Probably the first stint of each player, they’re going to be gassed in the first few minutes. It’s because it’s normal, it happens every year. So everything we’ve worked on here behind closed doors, now we can display it in front of our crowd, and show them how hard we’re willing to play for them, for the community. So, it’s exciting.”
Fernández’s excitement at finally having a chance to do his job — unencumbered by lottery positioning, the greater good or any such concerns — was clear to his players.
“Jordi’s really excited. He feels like going into every game, we’ve got a chance to win every single game,” Julius Randle said earlier. “We’re coming in trying to win. It’s as simple as that.”
Likely no Nets are feeling that more than the ones who had to suffer through the past two tanking seasons in Brooklyn.
Once the Nets committed to a rebuild, they slogged through a 26-56 campaign followed by last season’s 20-62 mark. In an upside-down bizarro world, victories were greeted with fury by fans and losses were celebrated for lottery positioning.
But unlike Charlotte’s lengthy tank — they’re riding a stretch of 10 straight seasons in the lottery — Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks always planned a short two-year tank.
That stretch is mercifully over.
How well it served its purpose remains to be seen.
The Nets will surely lose their fair share of games, but they’ll at least be vertically aligned in trying to win.
That in itself has created a different vibe in the locker room.
“Everybody’s excited about it. With that being said, there’s no benefit from losing: nothing,” Noah Clowney said. “Playing games, we think we’re going to go in every game with the idea of winning it, put our best foot forward. And I think that excites a lot of people. So yeah, I would say it’s a lot more excitement in the building.”
Keon Ellis — a summer free agent signee — may be one of the newest Nets, but he has known Fernández the longest.
The veteran guard played in Sacramento from 2022-24, when Fernández was the Kings’ associate head coach. And while Ellis said Fernández isn’t the most outwardly emotive, he can sense the latter’s excitement.
“It’s tough to tell with Jordi because he’s not like an expressive guy, but yeah. So I know he’s excited, just because that’s what we’re here for, long summer. So, just happy to get back to it,” Ellis said. “I know everyone’s excited.”
Between owing a pick swap to Houston and the NBA’s recent lottery reforms, the Nets have no reason to tank this season.
That’s why Marks went out and traded for a floor-raiser in Randle.
“Sean brought me here because of that, because it was time to win. So, that’s just what it is. I’m not here to lose. I don’t think anybody’s here to lose this year,” Randle told The Post, the “this year” caveat hanging in the air.
“We definitely want to be a team that goes out there and competes every single night. We’re playing to win. That’s as simple as I can put it.”