“It’s not the X’s and the O’s, but the Jimmys and the Joes.”
— Texas coach Darrell Royal
Before Jordi Fernandez became Nets head coach, he was considered the NBA’s best assistant coach. And even more than systems or tactics, it was about his ability to communicate and build relationships.
Or to paraphrase Royal, it was less about Fernandez’s plays and more about his players.
Specifically, not his ability to recruit them like Royal did, but his ability to reach them.
And that’s starting to show this preseason.
“Great guy. He has a great understanding of the job of coaching,” Cam Johnson said. “You can tell that in his short time, he’s been able to develop relationships enough to get on us and to push us, and we know he has our best interests at heart. He’s very detail-oriented, so I appreciate that. … [He] holds us to a high standard, and that accountability is something we need. I think we’re heading in the right direction.”
As soon as Brooklyn hired Fernandez, Cavaliers general manager Mike Gansey — his former boss — told The Post about his relationship-building skill.
Before Friday’s preseason finale — a 116-112 loss to Toronto — his players backed up that claim, despite the Spaniard being very demanding and at times blunt.
But so far, Fernandez has been able to get them to take tough coaching.
Whether that’s because he’s just one paper short of his PhD in sports psychology or it’s because he’s a European coach (they’re known to be direct),
Johnson said it’s likely a little of both but more the former.
“I think that [PhD] is big. In coaching, especially in professional sports, there’s a very big management part of it,” Johnson said. “It’s not just about X’s and O’s. It’s not just about what you know. It’s about how you’re able to communicate with your players and relate to your players and get the best out of them. He just has a great understanding of that. I think that’s where that comes from.”
Fernandez left the PhD program at the University of Barcelona to take an unpaid internship with the Cavaliers and jump-start his coaching career in 2009.
But he still has a degree in sports sciences and research on human behavior. He hasn’t thrown away what he learned but used it to make himself a better coach.
It was clear that at times, predecessor Jacque Vaughn struggled to get on the same page with Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas right from training camp last season.
While Bridges is gone, Fernandez has given Thomas a mandate to be more efficient offensively, challenged spindly Noah Clowney to be more physical and demanded better defense from Shake Milton.
And so far, they haven’t chafed.
“Well, I think it’s just that. Where we start is playing hard, playing hard for ourselves, so if you’re not doing that, [Fernandez] is going to bring you out,” Milton said. “Expectation-wise, he said, nobody’s given anything. You have to earn it. You have to work for it.”
A year ago, GMs voted Fernandez the top assistant in the league.
Asked how his communication is different now, he talked about building trust and alignment with his assistants.
“When you’re an assistant, you have to make your head coach’s life better. Whatever he’s saying, you have to have his back,” Fernandez said. “Obviously behind closed doors, you’re gonna challenge the group, you’re gonna challenge the head coach if you have to, but the most important thing is you’ll support him. Right now, I’m the one making the decisions or asking the coaching staff, and we’ll make these decisions together. Then we’ll get out there with the players.
“I want everybody to have my back. That support is important to build that trust and loyalty between the head coach and the assistants, and then the players can feel it. There’s no one way to do things in this life. There’s a lot of ways. But when you decide to go one way and everybody pushes in the same direction, good things happen. That’s the way that I want to see it right at this second.”