Simply put, the Brooklyn Nets haven’t had much to be excited about this regular season. At 18-34, Brooklyn owns the 12th seed in the Eastern Conference and currently has the sixth-best odds at the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

For the last few seasons, the Nets have been in between a Play-In Tournament team and a bottom feeder in the league. They were directionless until deciding to move a few of its veterans and shift its focus to the draft this season.

While Brooklyn’s focus has been on the draft and developing the young talent through the rebuild, the team is still closer to mediocrity than a tanking organization. One factor in particular has kept the team from dropping further in the standings.

For better or worse, head coach Jordi Fernandez has been impressive this season with such limited weapons in Brooklyn. The first-year head coach got the Nets off to a solid start, going 9-11 in their first 20 games. For the East’s standards, that put the Nets in position to compete in the postseason. Since then, Brooklyn has gone 9-23.

Fernandez has been the catalyst behind some of Brooklyn’s key wins, and has kept the team from dropping to the very bottom of the league. He has emphasized development and team basketball, and it shows. The Nets are 10th in the NBA in assist percentage and eighth in personal fouls drawn.

Perhaps the most interesting stat is that the Nets are dead last in the league in pace (96.29). They are the slowest team in the league despite having one player on the roster over 30 years old, Bojan Bogdanovic. He has yet to play this season.

The slow tempo allowed the Nets to maximize their offensive potential to start the season. At one point, Brooklyn had a top 10 offensive rating in its 9-11 start, led by scoring surges from Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson.

Fernandez’s coaching is keeping Brooklyn from great odds at the No. 1 overall pick at the moment, but it’s great to watch when thinking about the future. The Nets are trending down toward the bottom of the league, but they’ve recently won four of their last five games. However, the next pool of prospects, whoever they may be, are in great hands under Fernandez.

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