Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández’s first game against one of his former teams, the Denver Nuggets, ended in an overtime loss which showed the ups and downs a rebuild entails.

“The fact that we fought against a team like this, to me, it means a lot to our group … So proud of our guys,” Fernández said. The first-year head coach was an assistant under Mike Malone with the Nuggets for six seasons from 2016-2022.

Brooklyn is now 1-3 for the season. Dennis Schröder led the team in scoring and assists with 28 and 14, respectively. Cam Thomas added 26 points. Four Nuggets players scored more than 20 points: Nikola Jokić, Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray and Russell Westbrook.

In terms of injuries, Trendon Watford and Day’Ron Sharpe (left hamstrings) remained out for the Nets. Cui Yongxi was on assignment with Long Island in the G League, having been listed on their training camp roster. Ben Simmons is not playing back-to-backs for now, per Fernández, so he will be available Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies since he did not play versus Denver in the front end of this two-night series.

Noah Clowney received his first start of the season — and the fifth of his NBA career — as the main in the middle alongside Dennis Schröder, Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith. Nic Claxton continued to come off the bench.

Here are three takeaways from the Nets’ fourth game of the regular season:

Ziaire Williams finished with 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting, while also pitching in four assists, three rebounds and one block. 

Williams “has things that you can’t teach,” per Nets general manager Sean Marks, but his shooting might actually say the opposite of that. After scoring four of his five attempted three-pointers versus Denver, the Brooklyn wing is 8-of-12 from deep to start the season. He wasn’t just taking easy spot-up looks either, as he was moving and relocating into threes.

Williams explained that his shooting improvement started taking shape last year: “[Assistant coach] Anthony Carter from Memphis was the first person who taught me how to hop into a shot instead of one-two. That’s allowed me to get a lot more momentum and flow.”

But Ziaire wasn’t just shooting threes. He was also cutting and catching a lob, running out in transition and crashing the boards. All of Williams’ shots came from three, curiously on the right side of the floor, or at the rim. 

The former tenth overall pick seems aware that this opportunity with the Nets is a do-over of sorts in the NBA. In Memphis, Williams was ultimately usurped in the pecking order by newer, healthier and, at times, more productive wings. So far this season with the Nets, he’s been solid if unspectacular. 

Williams is in the final year of his contract ($6.1 million this season) and will be a restricted free agent next summer, not having come to terms with Brooklyn prior to the extension deadline. More games like this will help the Nets prioritize him or, alternatively, other teams covet him. 

The Nets are being careful with Nic Claxton, continuing to bring him off the bench as he works his way back from missing all of preseason with hamstring soreness. But he is evidently the team’s best center and, potentially, their best player. 

In 26 minutes, Claxton accrued his second double-double of the season, finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds. His three blocks also reflect his two-way impact, and his two assists display the more expansive touches Jordi Fernández is giving the Brooklyn big. 

On a night when Noah Clowney got his first start, the contrast between the second-year forward and the experienced Claxton was noticeable. Clowney continues to flash promise, but he needs to close out possessions better. In 15 minutes, he missed both of his attempted shots and only secured three rebounds. Claxton, on the other hand, is much more of an event creator and play-finisher near the basket.

That said, the Georgia product couldn’t do anything — and neither could any other Net — against Jokic, who finished with an absurd triple-double: 29 points, 18 rebounds and 16 assists. Posting up the three-time and reigning MVP was effectively a cheat code for the Nuggets, particularly down the stretch of the second half.

“What they do is put the ball in Nikola’s hands and he controls the game,” Fernández said. He called Jokic “an unbelievable player that put up an unbelievable performance.”

Claxton will not play on the second night of the Nets’ back-to-back against Memphis so that the team can manage his hamstring. It will be interesting to see whether Fernández tweaks his front court rotation or if he largely alternates between Clowney and Ben Simmons, who will be available, as was the case in preseason.  

The Brooklyn Nets are already one of the youngest teams in the NBA, but it seems like the buzz for any player who’s over 25 years old leans towards being traded elsewhere. GM Sean Marks and the organization is seemingly keeping their veterans updated on any talks that might happen but, for now, Brooklyn does not appear in a rush to move its more established players. 

Against Denver, it was those players — Dennis Schröder, Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith — who propelled a lot of the Nets’ performance. The three vets combined for 65 points, with Schröder in particular having a great game. By half-time, the German point guard had the most points and assists he’d ever racked up over two NBA quarters.

Cam Johnson was typically hot from three, making six of his ten attempted shots from downtown. The 28-year-old also continues to put the ball on the floor and make smart decisions. Finney-Smith was active on both ends, although he was cold from deep (7-of-27 in the season’s first four games) and missed a wide-open corner three that would’ve won the game for Brooklyn. Fans rooting for the Nets’ draft lottery odds to improve won’t hold that against him, though.

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A blistering, 26 page report on the use of comp or flex time by Denver’s fire chief and his top seven commanders calls the years-long practice a violation of Denver’s Revised Municipal Code, “an organizational failing” and a “problematic practice.” Mayor Mike Johnston said after the report was released Tuesday night he was asking Fire Chief Desmond Fulton to repay some of the vacation time Fulton has cashed out since 2023, and the mayor said what happened was “A troubling and systemic misuse of Flex Time.”

The investigative report, authored by former U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, was prompted by a CBS News Colorado Investigation in April which revealed Fulton and his top commanders were awarding themselves comp time for attending everything from firefighter memorials to retirement ceremonies to community events, then using the accrued comp time for vacations, allowing Fulton and his executive staff to then cash out unused vacation time at the end of each year. The report notes that Fulton cashed in unused vacation days between 2021 and 2023 for about $42,000. For the same time period, two division chiefs were paid $25,000 and $27,000 for unused vacation days while other command staff members received between $11,000 to $19,000 for unused vacation time during the same three years.

“All current Command Staff members ‘banked’ and later used (comp time hours) instead of using available vacation leave,” said the report. “They all received larger cash payouts for unused vacation leave than they otherwise would have. All of them engaged and benefitted financially from this practice.”

However, the report authors said none of the department commanders “fully exploited it to maximize payouts for unused vacation hours.” They did not intend to violate the law, said the report, but “this practice did violate the Denver Revised Municipal Code,” which prohibits fire department executive staff from collecting additional compensation for working extra hours.

In a written statement Tuesday night, Fire Chief Desmond Fulton wrote, “I take full responsibility for continuing a problematic timekeeping practice that violated city policy.”

While Fulton and his top staff were cashing in unused vacation days, they prohibited rank and file firefighters from doing the same thing. The report calls that a “double standard” that was “contradictory, appeared hypocritical and … unjustified.”

The report says the comp time practice that is now being halted started 13 years ago by a previous chief who wanted department commanders to be able to show how many extra hours they were working. The report says that DFD’s “insular culture” allowed the practice to go on for more than a decade.

“Tracking extra hours turned into banking extra hours and using them instead of vacation leave,” said the report.

The practice was stopped in April immediately after the CBS News Colorado reports on the comp time abuse.

The report is most critical of Fulton, who the report says, “Was the most assiduous user of Kelly Day/Flex time. He repeatedly coded blocks of four to five days off in a row as Kelly Day/Flex time used instead of coding that time off as vacation or sick leave. He also used more Kelly day/Flex time than anyone else,” according to the report. “He had the highest number of hours paid out as unused vacation leave.”

The investigators verified what CBS News Colorado previously reported — that Fulton was essentially getting paid to attend firefighter memorials, dinners at firehouses and community events. Critics said those duties should have been viewed as part of his $230,000 a year job.

Troyer’s report reviewed hundreds of pages of records and 37 interviews were conducted. He said various defenses of the comp time practice were offered but were “unpersuasive” and despite assertions that what was done was “best practice” he wrote that “we were unable to identify any fire departments that permit the use of compensatory or flex time in lieu of vacation hours for salaried, exempt executives in the same manner as DFD command staff used Kelly day/Flex time.”

 The report zeroes in on a 2022 national firefighter memorial in Maryland that Fulton attended with two of his command staff members. For the weekend, Fulton awarded himself 19 hours of comp time then used those hours to take three days off.

“Chief Fulton in essence converted the 19 hours he spent at the memorial into 19 hours of saved vacation leave for which he was paid,” reads the report.

In a statement Tuesday evening, Denver Manager of Safety Armando Saldate said he would review the new report to see if disciplinary action against top fire department commanders was warranted.

The report recommends Fulton and his staff no longer be allowed to work four 10 hour days and that command staff should undergo mandatory training each year on the prohibitions against accruing and using comp time.

The report also notes that what has been happening creates the future possibility of additional monetary benefits for Fulton, his deputy chief and six division chiefs, as the vacation cashout amounts are included in a DFD member’s base salary which is then used as the basis for calculating his or her post-retirement pension payments. The report says the impact on pension payments cannot be calculated until the command staff members leave the department.