Brooklyn’s season opener made one thing clear right away: Jordi Fernández is not handing out minutes by age or draft status. Even with three sophomores sitting through all 48 minutes of a 110-103 loss to the Charlotte Hornets at Barclays Center, the head coach is treating every spot in the rotation like it has to be earned every night.
Keon Ellis was one of the players who made the most of his chance. He picked Moussa Diabaté’s pocket, then a few seconds later set up Michael Porter Jr. for an alley-oop layup that pulled Brooklyn within six with 8:32 left. Ellis stayed on the floor for the entire fourth quarter, while Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf never got off the bench.
Brooklyn used 10 players in the opener, and the ripple effect reached beyond those three rookies. Terance Mann and Josh Minott also did not play. On Friday, Fernández said those decisions came out of a much bigger process than one night.
“Obviously nobody has guaranteed minutes,” Fernández said after practice.
He also pointed back to the work that led into the opener.
“It’s all the work they put through the summer and then through training camp and then the preseason games,” he said.
That patience is tied to the bigger shape of this roster. Last season, Brooklyn led the NBA in rookie minutes and finished 20-62.
Now the five first-rounders from that group are back with a year under their belts, and the team has more competition around them. Julius Randle gives Fernández another proven scorer next to Porter, while rookie Mikel Brown Jr. adds another ballhandling guard.
Fernández said he wants the players who earned early roles to get a chance to settle in and show more. He saw the right intentions in the opener, even if plenty still needs tightening up.
“As long as the attitude is good and the intentions are good, I got to be a little bit patient with what I want to see,” he said. “But then at the same time, if I feel I have to make changes because of the benefit of the group, I will.”
He made clear he does not want to treat Game 1 like a crisis. Changing everything right away, in his view, would amount to “freaking out.” The goal is to let the players already in the rotation build on what got them there in the first place.
The details he is watching are the kind coaches obsess over: proper box-outs, sprinting to the corners, and getting touches in the paint. Fernández said Friday those were the standards he uses to judge how hard Brooklyn played, and the Hornets game did not meet the team’s own expectations in those areas.
Ellis stood out in that setting. Fernández praised his “a lot of composure” amid what he described as opening-night anxiety across the roster. Ellis finished with seven points, and in the fourth quarter he added three assists, two steals and no turnovers.
Nolan Traoré’s role is still being shaped too, and he knows where he needs to sharpen things. He played 15:31 in the opener, then said Friday that he has to use his speed more effectively.
“I think I have to bring more pace to the game,” he said. “That’s my strength, so I got to use it more.”
Brown’s situation is different, because it is not just about performance. He logged 19:48 in his debut, and he will remain on a minutes restriction Saturday in Cleveland. Brooklyn’s medical and performance staff has a plan to build him up, and Fernández said more minutes and back-to-backs are not around the corner.
Porter said Brown has already shown plenty in practice.
Porter described sessions where Brown had “won the day because he was killing.”
Even so, the workload still has to be managed carefully, and that affects the lineup combinations Fernández can test. He wants to see Brown paired with Egor Dëmin, but finding those minutes means balancing the rest of the rotation too.
“What I want is to find the right groups that can function together and be efficient, that work on both ends of the floor,” Fernández said. “That’s on me.”
For the players who didn’t crack the rotation Wednesday, Porter emphasized the value of staying locked in and feeding the team’s energy from wherever they are.
“So, right now it’s about being good teammates and bringing that energy, bringing that culture and enthusiasm to whatever your role is, whether you’re on the court or not,” Porter said.
Fernández gave Powell, Saraf and Wolf a simple message: stay ready and do whatever helps Brooklyn win. Traoré, who played in each of the first three quarters before sitting the entire fourth, said Friday that he understands how fast things can change.
“I mean, that’s just the job,” he said.
In Other News...
Jordi Fernndez Already Faces A Nets Problem That Cost Them Opener
The Nets season opener in Charlotte offered Jordi Fernndez an early reminder of how thin the margin can be in a new year. Brooklyn had stretches where the offense looked functional enough, but the game kept slipping because of the same kinds of self-inflicted mistakes that tend to travel badly in October: loose possessions, shaky rhythm and too many empty trips that left the group chasing instead of setting the tone.
Fernndez and Julius Randle both pointed to those issues after the loss, with the coach emphasizing the need to clean up possession control and the veteran forward calling out the mistakes that stalled Brooklyns flow. There were encouraging signs, too, including a promising NBA debut from rookie Brown, but the Nets already have a familiar problem to sort through if they want their early-season work to mean more than a hard-luck opener. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Fans Got A Concerning Mikel Brown Jr. Update Before Cleveland
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Mikel Brown Jr. is the other situation worth watching. The rookie guard, who is working his way back from a preseason ankle injury, is being managed on a minutes restriction as head coach Jordi Fernandez looks to build him back up physically. Fernandez said the plan is to keep handling Brown carefully for now, and there is no set timetable yet for when that limitation will come off. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Rebuild Plan Is Already Under Pressure After Opening Night
The Nets entered this season with one of the leagues biggest piles of future draft capital, 32 picks overall and 13 in the first round, trailing only Oklahoma City in that department. But the focus shifted quickly after the loss to Charlotte, when questions started coming in about how the teams 2025 first-round group looked in its first real test and whether that long-view rebuild is already being stress-tested in the short term.
There is still plenty of time for the picture to change, and both the team and the players have voiced confidence that improvement is coming. Even so, the clock is already ticking on a different front, with Brooklyn facing a November 2 decision on contract extensions for all five of those first-rounders beyond this season, a choice that will say plenty about how firmly the organization wants to stay patient. [Read more 🡒]