Brooklyn Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernández Reflects on Oklahoma City Thunder’s Rebuild

Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández spoke about the Oklahoma City Thunder’s successful rebuild following his team’s Sunday night loss to the latter, and what he is looking for from the Nets as they begin their own process.

“From the outside looking in, you can see that they’re a group that they believe in what they do, and they trust what they do,” Fernández said. “And this is because, along a period of time, even [if] the things go one way or the other, and there is adversity, there’s no second-guessing and there’s just the willingness to work and get better and compete.”

The Nets wrapped up their west coast road trip, a six-game stretch, with a defeat to the Thunder. The contest got off to a rough start when Oklahoma City outscored Brooklyn 39-19 in the first quarter. Fernández’s squad competed, but the game always looked too far gone.

“That’s what I want to see from our growth: resiliency and fight, and doing things the right way. Having right intentions on both ends,” the Nets head coach said post-game. “We have to build that mentality, character and obviously, the Xs and Os, and understanding how we do certain things.” 

Cam Johnson and Tyrese Martin led the team in scoring with 15 points each. Nic Claxton added 11. For Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a 27-point, 10-assist double-double. Isaiah Joe finished with 24 points on eight made three-pointers. Aaron Wiggins, Ousmane Dieng and Jaylin Williams also scored in the double figures.

Fernández reflected on the away stretch: “You learn from every situation, right? Played Denver and we played against a very special player (Nikola Jokic). Then we go into Utah and there’s late game situations on offense and defense and we made mistakes and we learned from it. Then we respond in Portland. Then we have a really tough one against the Clippers, which it’s where you don’t want to point fingers. You want to stay together and support each other. And we go to the Lakers, played against the all-time… one of the best players in the world… and, you know, we responded again. And now we come here. We fight.” 

The Nets are now 14-29, and have only won two of their last ten games. Brooklyn’s only west coast win was against the Portland Trail Blazers on Jan. 14. The Thunder, on the other hand, are first in the Western Conference but it wasn’t long ago that they were in the Nets’ current shoes.

“They do a great job and we have to focus on our own process — and that’s a good thing,” Fernández said. “Sustaining success takes the understanding [of] how things go, and when there’s adversity, is when it’s most important. And that’s right there when our guys have been very good, working hard to just [be] successful along the process … and we just started at this point, and we know we will be very good soon enough.” 

Next, the Nets host the New York Knicks at Barclays Center on Tuesday at 7:30 PM ET. The team begins a four-game home stretch facing the Knicks, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings.

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