The Brooklyn Nets have started each of the last two seasons a vastly different team, and the same will be true going into next season.
The Nets finished 32-50 this past season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2018. They changed course again by hiring Jordi Fernandez in April. The 41-year-old Fernandez, who was the associate head coach for the Sacramento Kings this past season. He is the Nets’ fifth head coach since 2016. In order Kenny Atkinson, Jacque Vaughn (interim), Steve Nash, Jacque Vaughn again, Kevin Ollie (interim) and Fernandez have held the position. Vaughn was fired last February during the NBA All-Star break and replaced by Ollie, who was in his first year with the Nets as an assistant. The team chose not to retain Ollie after he went 11-17 taking over a difficult situation.
Fernández, born and raised in Badalona, Spain, is also the head coach of Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team, where he led them to a bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup after defeating Team USA. That American team had a roster that included Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards and Mikal Bridges, who the Nets traded to the Knicks a little over a week ago in a major deal.
The Nets, led by owner Joe Tsai and general manager Sean Marks, moved Bridges, who was their best player and one of the top two-way wings in the league, and included a 2026 second round pick to the Knicks for a trove of first round picks. The Nets received a four unprotected first-round picks (2025, ‘27, ‘29, ‘31), a 2025 protected first round pick, and pick swaps in 2028; as well as a 2025 second-round pick.
The Nets also completed a trade with the Houston Rockets in which they reacquired their 2025 first round draft pick that was sent to Houston as part of the 2021 James Harden trade, and a 2026 first rounder. The moves signal the Nets being all-in for the 2025 NBA Draft, which is considered to be deep. Rising college freshmen such as Cooper Flagg, a 6’9” forward who will attend Duke in the upcoming season, is the early favorite to be selected with the first pick next June. Ace Bailey, a 6”8” wing, and combo guard Dylan Harper, the son of former NBA player Ron Harper, are also projected to be taken near the top of the draft. Both will attend Rutgers,
The Nets have other valuable assets to construct their roster, notably forward Ben Simmons’s contract, which expires at the end of next season. Simmons is set to make $40 million next season. The team will look vastly different from the team that had championship aspirations with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden two years ago.
