The Brooklyn Nets have signed head coach Jordi Fernández and his coaching staff to multi-year contract extensions, locking in the franchise’s direction on April 20, 2026 after two seasons of deep rebuilding. Fernández, who was hired in 2024, has gone 46-118 over his first two years in Brooklyn, including a 20-62 finish this season that left the Nets 13th in the Eastern Conference.
Sean Marks said Fernández was “a tremendous leader” who, along with his staff, “put his stamp on this franchise from the moment he arrived in Brooklyn,” adding that the coach has built “a strong foundation rooted in player development, a competitive spirit and honest communication” that the roster has embraced. That roster is the youngest in the NBA, with no player older than 29 and teenagers such as Egor Dёmin, 19, alongside 21-year-old Noah Clowney.
The extension fits the shape of Brooklyn’s rebuild. The Nets have 13 first-round picks and 19 second-round selections over the next seven years, with nine of those first-rounders available to trade, giving the front office room to keep reshaping the team around a coach who has already shown he can work with young players and a long view. Brooklyn also had five first-round picks in the 2025 draft, including Dёmin at No. 8 overall, a sign of how aggressively the team has been stockpiling talent.
Fernández arrived in Brooklyn after two years as associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings, following six seasons as an assistant with the Denver Nuggets and work with Spain’s national team. He also coached Canada at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2024 Paris Olympics, a résumé that helped sell the Nets on a coach comfortable with development, detail and pressure. The contract extension suggests Brooklyn is prepared to let that plan play out, even after a start measured more by losses than by wins.
His staff, which includes Steve Hetzel, Juwan Howard and Jay Hernandez among nine assistants, is staying intact too, a further sign the Nets are betting on continuity as much as a turnaround. The next phase will not be about whether Brooklyn is rebuilding; it will be about whether Fernández can turn one of the league’s youngest teams and deepest draft stashes into something that starts winning before the calendar says it should.
