Nets intend to hire Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez as head coach

Woj notes that Fernandez became Brooklyn’s preferred candidate following an exhaustively thorough search over the last month. Fernandez, 41, was one of three finalists for the gig, along with 2021 championship-winning former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer and Suns assistant coach Kevin Young.

The Nets had been looking for their long-term head coaching solution even prior to the end of the 2023-24 regular season, while the team was still under the tutelage of interim head coach Kevin Ollie, who had stepped in after Brooklyn fired former head coach Jacque Vaughn mid-season.

Fernandez was an assistant coach under Michael Malone on the Nuggets from 2016-22. He has served under Mike Brown‘s Kings regime in the past two years. In 2023, during Brown and Fernandez’s first season with the franchise, Sacramento made the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. Fernandez coached a starry Canadian national team to capturing a bronze medal in last year’s FIBA World Cup.

Since he has been the Nets’ majority owner in 2019, Joe Tsai has already gone through three permanent head coaches. In that five-season span, Vaughn served as an interim head coach twice.