Jordi Fernandez wasn’t in Denver for the coronation, but he helped steer the Nuggets toward the throne.

During his six years on Michael Malone’s staff, en route to his own head coaching job in Brooklyn, he left an indelible imprint on players.

“No good memories,” Michael Porter Jr. said, straight-faced. “Not a single one.”

Kidding.

“He was here when I first got here. He was a defensive coach at the time. He really paid attention to me and kind of saw my potential,” Porter told The Denver Post. “Even when I was coming in with an injury, he believed in me, and I was one of his guys that he wanted to really help. … He was intentional about developing the relationship with players.”

Fernandez returned to Colorado as a head coach for the first time on Friday night, leading an injury-depleted Nets squad firmly in rebuild mode. His former players and colleagues caught up with him before and after the game in the hallways underneath Ball Arena, a series of reunions that included one with Nikola Jokic, who beamed when bringing up Fernandez’s family.

“His daughter turned 7 I think today,” Jokic said after the Nuggets’ 124-105 win.

“I think he’s doing a good job. I think guys are listening. Guys are playing hard for him. I think that’s really important for a coach. … They are trying to do the right thing. They are trying to do what he is probably telling them. So they have some kind of system, and it’s really cool to see. They’re in the beginning of the process, of course. Hopefully, they can grow.”

Fernandez, 42, first got to know Malone in 2009 when he joined the Cavaliers as a player development coach on Mike Brown’s staff. Malone was an assistant coach in Cleveland at the time, and he was struck by Fernandez’s “enthusiasm for the game; his passion for the game.” Fernandez went on to coach the G League’s Canton Charge; Malone had a cup of coffee as Sacramento’s head coach before ending up in Denver. He hired Fernandez in 2016, one season into his Nuggets tenure.

“Every year that I was here helped prepare me for this job,” Fernandez said Friday. “Michael Malone, the organization, the coaching staff, ownership, front office. Every experience here. It was one of the reasons I’m in the position that I’m in right now. I was able to experience a young team that the majority of the guys were drafted, that we built into a playoff team, made it to the conference finals and then won a championship. So the process really helped me to understand how things work. It’s never going to be the same (in every situation), and it’s never going to be perfect. But going through it here and being part of it I think was a great experience for me as a coach.”

His 2022 departure for Sacramento to become Brown’s associate head coach turned out to be unlucky timing. The Nuggets won their first NBA title the following season, with longtime Fernandez pupils such as Jokic, Porter and Jamal Murray making up the championship core.

That meant the pinnacle of Fernandez’s time in Denver occurred, well, away from Denver. The Nuggets took their first major step by reaching the Western Conference Finals in the COVID-19 bubble. “There’s the ups and downs with wins and losses and frustrations and happiness,” he said.

But his most cherished memories are not solely professional. Denver remains a sentimental former home for a coach who has represented as wide an array of places as anyone in the sport. Fernandez is from Spain. He used to be an assistant coach for Spain’s national team, and for Nigeria’s. Most recently, he took over as Canada’s head coach for the 2023 FIBA World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics. Colorado still stands out because “six years of my life with my family were here,” he said. “My kids were born here.”

Fernandez spent two seasons with the Kings before taking the top job in Brooklyn, where he has navigated constant roster instability in his debut season. The Nets traded veteran guard Dennis Schroder to Golden State in mid-December. Two weeks later, they traded Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Lakers, taking back D’Angelo Russell (and stockpiling draft picks). Their injury report on Friday was eight names long.

A pursuit of a coveted top-three pick seems to be in Brooklyn’s near future, despite an impressive start to the season that earned Fernandez recognition. He’s faced with the precarious balance between developing winning habits in his players while his team likely loses a lot of games.

“(He has) just a hunger and an appetite for learning and growing, and his ability to just relate and get along with the players,” Malone said. “You could tell it was just a matter of time when he was given that opportunity. … Been a tough year for them, but I think when you look at everything they’ve gone through this year — the trades, the players and all that — the most important thing for Jordi and any young coach is to establish a culture. And then as you add pieces to that culture, then the wins will come.”

As warmly received as Fernandez was by old friends at Ball Arena, Malone’s competitiveness has rubbed off on him. The 42-year-old sounded a lot like his former boss before the game on Friday when asked about all the catching up he would be doing throughout the night, all the congratulatory handshakes he would be receiving.

“Once you do your job, there’s no friends,” Fernandez said. “And the same way I want to beat them, they’re going to want to beat me. I know for sure that Michael Malone feels the same way.”

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It was a big night for the Denver Nuggets against the Brooklyn Nets. Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook team up for triple doubles and put the pedal to the metal in the second half which got the Nuggets a big lead. Brooklyn fought back for a bit, but Denver’s duo was too much for them to handle. It wasn’t all good news with Jamal Murray leaving the game after the first half with knee soreness but the Nuggets were still able to get a blowout and win tonight 124-105.

The Nuggets were a bit slow to start while the Nets were active which let Brooklyn get out to a 7-2 lead. They hit their first six shots with Ben Simmons leading the way but Denver kept within striking distance as the quarter progressed. The Nuggets tightened the screws and went on a little run to get back within three right around the halfway mark of the first. Both teams had their shortcomings. Denver kept turning it over, the Nets kept attempting alley-oops that they didn’t convert. The Nuggets tied it up at 24 with just under four minutes to go. Julian Strawther continued his run of good play early, he got five points almost immediately after coming off the bench and that resulted in Denver’s first lead. The Nets closed out the quarter on a 7-0 run and led 36-32 at the break.

Count the basket pic.twitter.com/G3i0U0BEYZ

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 11, 2025

The non-Jokic minutes were clunky to start the second and resulted in an early Michael Malone rage timeout. The Nuggets got more focused after that but started committing fouls so they stayed behind. Neither team could buy a bucket for a solid three minutes and around the seven and a half minute mark Jokic checked back in. He and Russell Westbrook worked their two man game to get some points while the Nets started to hit some threes. Denver took the lead with about five minutes left in the half and the Nets called timeout. Brooklyn went ice cold while Denver started scoring which led to an extended 16-2 run and got their lead up to eight. The Nets responded with the half winding down and finally started scoring again. They got the lead down to three with a minute to go but the Nuggets closed strong and went to the locker room leading 65-59.

The Jok and Russ connection pic.twitter.com/ZDcTO7mJdV

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 11, 2025

The second half opened with some troubling news. Strawther was in the starting lineup for Murray who was out with knee soreness. Despite missing their starting point guard, the Nuggets were knocking down threes and quickly got up by double digits. Michael Porter Jr. started to get hot and pushed Denver’s lead up to seventeen after burying a three in Simmons face. The lead kept climbing with the talent difference between the teams becoming evident, halfway through the quarter Denver led by more than twenty. The Nets were able to stop the bleeding heading down the stretch of the third but weren’t stringing together stops. They kept working though with the Nuggets looking a little too comfortable with their lead. A good close to the quarter put Brooklyn trailing 94-79 after three.

What a pass from Brodie pic.twitter.com/v3kYRfX8sa

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 11, 2025

Brooklyn kept the Denver off the scoreboard for the first two minutes of the quarter while knocking down a pair of threes and just like that the lead was back under ten. That made for an early return to the game for Jokic but the Nuggets were still struggling to score and had just three points in almost four minutes. That trimmed Denver’s lead to just five. Joker got them going on offense again and kept Brooklyn from closing the gap more. Westbrook was aggressive in getting to the basket but the Nets got enough baskets to keep Denver from running away. They couldn’t stop fouling the Nuggets though which made the lead creep back up into double digits. The wind started coming out of the Nets sails as they resigned to jacking up threes. Westbrook delivered multiple pinpoint passes in a row into the paint which got him a triple-double to with Jokic’s. With two minutes left Denver was up by sixteen and Westbrook delivered the dagger with a corner three shortly after to cap off a fantastic game from him. Nuggets win big 124-105.

Electric pic.twitter.com/JVDsV6h9kh

— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) January 11, 2025

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There will be no Westbrook slander

When the Nuggets signed Westbrook there naturally was some reason for concern. He hadn’t played at nearly the level he did during the twenty-teens and appeared to be on the full decline. He’ll never get back to his MVP form at this point in his career but Russ has been absolutely vital to this team. Next to Jokic he’s become an absolute force and also expands Nikola’s dominance even more with his ability to get Joker the ball in great spots. He’s also been a major steadying force with Denver’s bench unit and is rounding into a form where you feel comfortable with him being the primary weapon on offense when Nikola’s off the floor. I can’t wait to see him in the playoffs when the energy goes to a whole new level.

Just hope for the best for Jamal

It’s obviously concerning when Murray leaves the game with any injury, but when the injury is knee soreness I think all of Nuggets Nation holds their collective breath. Murray was really starting to round into form these last couple weeks and it will hurt Denver if he has to miss extended time. Coach Malone didn’t sound overly concerned and said after the game Murray pulled himself because the knee just wasn’t feeling right. Hopefully that’s all it is. On a night where the Nuggets were playing against a team that is more interested in lottery balls than Ws it didn’t hurt to be extra cautious. Moving forward, with the way Westbrook is playing right now and with Jalen Pickett looking more and more like an NBA player the Nuggets should absolutely give Jamal as much time as he needs to feel right.