Thursday’s loss was full of teachable moments for the Nets’ young roster, and Nolan Traoré found himself at the center of one of them.
As the teams left the court, Jordi Fernández lingered, coaching the French guard with urgency, arms stretched wide and frustration showing as he spoke at Traoré on the way to the locker room. Traoré struggled through the night, shooting 1-for-8 and finishing with three points, two assists and two turnovers in 26 minutes off the bench.
The moment didn’t slip past the YES Network cameras, which caught the exchange in 4K. And when asked about it afterward, Fernández explained exactly what he was trying to drive home.
“I need him to use his superpowers and touch the paint, and it felt like he got caught shooting the unders, and a lot of times they’re going to go under [the screen] because that’s what they want you to do,” Fernández said. “But if you keep shooting and missing, sometimes if you keep doing the same thing and seeing the same results, I think that’s the definition of insanity.”
Brooklyn was severely short-handed against Houston, missing three starters, including primary ball handlers Egor Dëmin and Terance Mann. With Michael Porter Jr. also sidelined by illness, the Nets were short on organization and creation, placing even more responsibility on Traoré to steady things offensively.
That responsibility didn’t go away when the shots stopped falling, which is why Fernández’s message centered less on results and more on decision-making.
“I know how good he is,” Fernández said. “He can play pick-and-roll, he can touch the paint, he can reject pick-and-roll, he can play with a pass. And two assists to two turnovers is just not good enough. That’s why I needed him to understand I need more. I’m OK with a pull-up 3. I don’t love it because he hasn’t shown that he can make it consistently. He can shoot as many catch-and-shoot 3s as he wants. But I just didn’t think he played the game the way I want him to play the game. And if he gets one percent better tomorrow, that’s what I want to see.”
Traoré’s uneven night came after a stretch where he had carved out a real role in the rotation since Dec. 21, following a productive run in the G League where his confidence, pace and playmaking were on full display. Since sticking with the Nets, he’s shown flashes of why the organization believes in him. His speed in the open floor, his willingness to push tempo and his ability to organize an offense when things get chaotic.
That’s also why the leash remains longer than the box score might suggest.
“Nolan is very good when we can play full court,” Fernández said. “With that, you need stops. When you’re taking the ball out of the net or you don’t rebound, it’s going to be hard to use what he does best.”
Those opportunities aren’t going away anytime soon. The Nets will again be short-handed Friday night against the Washington Wizards, with Cam Thomas and others unavailable on the second night of a back-to-back. That reality all but ensures Traoré will continue to see meaningful minutes, provided he stays poised, receptive and aligned with what the coaching staff is asking of him.
Inside the locker room, that process hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Nolan’s great,” Thomas said. “Fast. Pushes the ball, gets us into sets. It’s going to be really good. Sometimes it just takes time, but he’s been really good, productive. So, really happy to be playing with him. We’ll see where it goes.”
