Jordi Fernández didn’t try to dress it up as a chess move.
He wasn’t chasing matchups or searching for the ideal combination of players. The Nets head coach went with a different starting group to open the second half of Sunday’s 124-102 loss to the Chicago Bulls because he wanted a response, and he wasn’t getting one.
“I think I answered yesterday after the game, that it was me trying to find a reaction from the group,” Fernández said. “That was the message. It’s not like you’re not going to play. It’s just like we need to find a reaction here.”
That reaction is what the Nets were chasing as they returned to Barclays Center for Monday’s matchup with the Phoenix Suns, a quick turnaround that left little time to sit with Sunday’s struggles. Brooklyn entered the night at 12-28, still searching for consistency in a season that has been defined as much by effort and execution as it has by injury management and lineup shuffling.
Fernández’s decision to open the second half in Chicago with a different unit wasn’t necessarily about punishment. It was about trying to manufacture urgency on the fly and reinforcing what he’s been telling his team since training camp. The rotation is flexible. Minutes are earned. And if the energy isn’t there, he’s going to go searching for it, even if that means flipping the script at halftime.
“I’m rewarding the group that I felt played well,” Fernández said. “Then after watching the film, I felt pretty much the same way. Then, it didn’t work out overall for the game. We didn’t play hard enough, and we got outplayed right there. We tried at times. But, in the NBA, it has to be a complete effort for all 48 minutes.”
That’s the part that matters going forward. The Nets can live with missed shots. They can live with a bad stretch. Fernández has shown he’s willing to play young guys through rough patches, as long as they stay aggressive and connected. What he won’t tolerate is drifting, especially on the defensive end where possessions get decided by effort, communication and physicality.
The lineup change was essentially an in-game reminder that the floor is always open for someone to impact the game in ways that don’t show up in the box score. That’s why Cam Thomas and Nic Claxton stayed involved, why Nolan Traore got another opportunity, why Tyrese Martin and Jalen Wilson were asked to bring something different to the table.
Fernández wasn’t searching for a perfect five. He was searching for a pulse. And even though Sunday’s platoon swap didn’t change the outcome, it clarified where Brooklyn is right now.
The second-year head coach isn’t asking for mistake-free basketball. He’s asking for a baseline, the kind of consistent effort and focus that travels. If Sunday was a reminder of how quickly things can unravel when those standards slip, Monday was a chance for the Nets to show they’ve heard him.
“Concentration has to be there again for 48 minutes,” Fernández said. “It was not a game that I was very happy with.”
