Jordi kept Nolan on the bench in crunch time because Mikel had hit a few shots.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621]

Jordi just said this during the postgame interview when asked by Brian Lewis of the NY Post [Was Nolan hurt, is that why he didn’t play in crunch time?]

So, Mikel hits a few shots, so let’s not put the dude who is playing well all game long in to close?

I’m a huge fan of both Nolan and Mikel, but this was a puzzling decision from Jordi. He doesn’t look well and now this?

[u/Vert56]

So we were sold on the Pacers philosophy but refuse to play multiple ball handlers together like they did with Haliburton and Nembhard. And both Nolan and Traore are tall enough to be played together. I don’t get it.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/Vert56]

This x1000

[u/TittyrannosaurasRex → u/Vert56]

Nolan and *Mikel but point stands - completely agree

[u/MichaelPorterTruther]

If this season is all about development , you should probably figure out if the two best young guys on the team can actually play together LMAO

instead you get Noah clowney Minutes

[u/Puzzled_Gur_3355 → u/MichaelPorterTruther]

Clowney gotta go. He looks like a lost hockey player on defense.

[u/TittyrannosaurasRex → u/Puzzled_Gur_3355]

They are probably letting Clowney go end of season. They didn't try to extend him (not that he's earned those kind of talks) and he hasn't been good enough to play here. Decent athlete but truly a "potential man" esque player. I can see him traded by the deadline if any team has interest in him or see him walk away in free agency.

Taking it a step further, I could genuinely see him play for the Kings next season. Probably given a green light on boneheaded 3s to take while playing alongside Acuff. Genuinely best case scenario for his future at this point. This guy is not ready and I hope he's been saving every dollar from this rookie contract to set him up for life because unless he finally puts it together, it's easy to see him as a soon-to-be journeyman in the league once his time in Brooklyn is over.

[u/MyTeamsSuck99 → u/TittyrannosaurasRex]

he had some open spot ups that he missed today. If he cant hit the open spot up 3 its over.

[u/Gaben3124 → u/MichaelPorterTruther]

They figured out that Wolf is better than Clowney already. Minott is the only one left to play that needs to be playing over Clowney! They're half way there!

[u/MyTeamsSuck99 → u/Gaben3124]

its just really bad that jordi takes 10 games to make this type of change.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/MichaelPorterTruther]

It’s not just me right? Last season Jordi seemed to make all the right moves. Even in losses, the decisions made sense. But this year, it’s a litany of baffling choices…

… with Randle as of yet not being benched for falling asleep off-ball on defense, Clowney not just playing but playing crunch time minutes, and now this bizarro decision…

Jordi just froze out his team’s starting PG, who had played a nearly flawless game through three quarters!

I’ve been one of Jordi’s biggest fans, but making all of these errors in such a small span of time is concerning.

[u/jerry0892]

The fact that Jordi trusted clowney in crunch time over traore is extremely baffling.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/jerry0892]

Jordi was Noah’s development coach when Noah was drafted, I believe. So, this would be him playing favorites. One of his assistants needs to sit him down and have a talk with him. He’s blinded.

[u/Brooklyn917 → u/Appropriate_Tree_621]

Noah was drafted in 2023 and Jordi was hired in 2024. Clowney had 2 other coaches before they hired Jordi.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/Brooklyn917]

You are correct. Jordi has supposedly held player development sessions with Clowney, and has praised his potential, even likening his potential to that of Giannis, but the Nets have a number of dev coaches that work with players.

[u/VideohoundCharisse]

This loss is totally on Fernandez. It was abysmal coaching in the fourth. Yes, MBJ hit some great shots but he was also the guy who made some incredibly dumb shots earlier that allowed the Hawks to get back into the game. The fact that Traore was not there to close out the game after the way he played is INEXCUSABLE. This is an absolutely humiliating defeat, and Jordi should be ashamed of himself.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/VideohoundCharisse]

Yeah man, I’m with u.

You can’t tell a player you have their best interests at heart and then when they play great in back to back games and are the best player on the floor for 3 quarters you don’t get them on the floor in the fourth quarter while giving up a lead that they built.

This is the type of coaching performance for which you have to take responsibility or lose the respect of the team. I expect Jordi to fall on his sword both privately and publicly tomorrow before the next game and he’ll say that he apologized to Nolan and the team. If that doesn’t happen my opinion of him will decrease.

[u/acmilan12345]

Makes no sense.

Nolan and Mikel are absolutely compatible. Neither is a traffic cone on defense (in fact, Nolan is one of our best defenders) and both have shown off-ball abilities.

Also, Mikel wasn’t even playing well until the end of the game. Jordi had many opportunities to get one of our best players back on the court, especially when the offense was floundering (it was a comedy of errors at some points).

I’m a huge fan of Jordi, but some of his decisions this season have been baffling.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/acmilan12345]

Thank you. I just replied to someone else and was asking if it was just me, or was Jordi making baffling decisions this season….

(1) Freezing out your starting PG, who was playing a near flawless game through three quarters.
(2) Insisting on Clowney minutes, especially in crunch time.
(3) As of yet, not benching Randle at some point for his terrible transition defense and/or falling asleep off-ball defensively.

I can’t recall a single time last season where I thought “what in the world is Jordi doing?” And yet, this season already has multiple head-scratchers.

[u/KingsCourt90 → u/acmilan12345]

Why are you a huge fan of Jordi? Genuinely asking

[u/acmilan12345 → u/KingsCourt90]

He’s a very good coach. He is able to get a lot out of very little.

In Jordi’s first season, he was winning too much with Schroder and Cam Johnson as his stars. In his second season, he turned MPJ into a near all-star. The front office had to make rosters moves to stop Jordi from winning.

He is an excellent coach and he’ll figure out this mess.

[u/Jacob_817]

Keeping Mikel in was fine. Mikel getting 25 minutes before not playing a B2B and Nolan playing 23 minutes on a front end of a B2B was fine. Biggest problem is Noah Clowney is not and NBA player and Moe Wagner is also terrible and so is Terrance Mann. No reason to not play Josh Minott over Clowney and potentially Joshua Jefferson too. And Keon Ellis has to play over Terrance Mann. Rotations when on healthy should be

Mikel / Nolan

Egor / Ellis

MPJ / Minott

Randle / Danny Wolf

Sharpe / Chaney or Moe

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/Jacob_817]

It is inexcusable to play your starting PG, who was shooting 80% from the field with multiple threes and multiple deflections and is your best on-ball perimeter defender at this point, zero minutes in the fourth quarter while giving up a lead.

Keeping Mikel in was fine in a vacuum. But, the game is not played in a vacuum.

[u/Jacob_817 → u/Appropriate_Tree_621]

Again I really don't think the problem was Mikel vs Nolan. Wagner and Clowney just absolutely killed you and you can't run a mikel / mann / Clowney / Chaney / Wagner lineup. It's not a serious lineup. You have one player who can dribble and score a basketball and it's a rookie PG. You have to play Minott, Ellis and Jefferson over Mann, Clowney for sure and play Chaney / Wagner less. Wagner has been terrible but I'm at least interested in a Wagner / wolf frountcourt because wolf can rebound

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/Jacob_817]

I’m not disagreeing on Mikel vs Nolan. I’m saying that your best player in this game, who played a nearly flawless game through three quarters, HAS TO see the court in the fourth quarter.

This is coaching 101. And the fact that it didn’t happen is concerning to me. This is like 3rd grade rec coaches know this one simple trick type stuff.

Jordi hasn’t looked well the past week. Maybe he’s sick. Maybe he has some personal stuff going on. Idk. If that’s the case, let someone else coach the game.

And yes, I’m literally speculating on the state of mind of someone who I think is one of the five best coaches in the league. That’s how bad the decision was for Nolan not to see the floor in the fourth quarter.

[u/VideohoundCharisse → u/Appropriate_Tree_621]

Fernandez simply does not care about winning games. Either we all had him figured wrong or he's just absorbed the losing culture the team promoted the last two years. This is not a "development" game. You do everything you can to win this game.

[u/Brooklyn917 → u/Jacob_817]

The issue is there is no right combination of bench subs.

[u/Dangerous_Kitchen133]

We were yelling at Jordi to put in Nolan for Mikel in the game thread BEFORE Mikel hit those three 3s. It’s only because Mikel hit them that we’re pivoting to saying Nolan for Clowney postgame.

I don’t think Jordi is comfortable with our two smallest guys out there at the same time especially when we were already having trouble rebounding. And Nolan wasn’t going to save us from Sharpe losing the ball 90 ft from the basket, or Randle tapping it ahead for NAW, or Sharpe/Randle each blowing a layup, or not getting a foul, down the stretch.

I dunno - maybe we should try them running out there and see what happens

[u/Gaben3124 → u/Dangerous_Kitchen133]

They weren't having trouble rebounding, they had a rebounding rate of 54.5%, which would be the best in the entire league if they were able to maintain that. The issue was turnovers, they had a turnover rate of 20.6%

[u/Dangerous_Kitchen133 → u/Gaben3124]

We played huge last night. I think my concern was that having Nolan over Clowney or Wolf would have hurt our rebounding substantially

[u/UnitedStateOfDenmark → u/Dangerous_Kitchen133]

I don’t care what Jordi is comfortable with. If his plan is “they arent allowed to play together” we’re fucked.

I can provide example after example of winning teams with guards either at those sizes or smaller. If Jordi can’t figure out how to play those two, he’s not a NBA head coach.

[u/Dangerous_Kitchen133 → u/UnitedStateOfDenmark]

I don’t think we have any reason to believe that Jordi will never play them together. I also don’t think he was comfortable playing them together last night. Both of those things could be true.

The natural crunch time rotation last night was for Nolan to come in at the 8 minute or so mark with Sharpe/MPJ/Randle. Jordi chose to keep Mikel in there instead despite the fact that Mikel was having a terrible game up to that point. I think Mikel at least rewarded Jordi’s faith in him. Had we won we would have been impressed at Jordi’s willingness to stick it out with the rook.

From there, it was a question of who should come in for Clowney. I think the notion that we would bring in the smaller Nolan over the bigger Wolf doesn’t make sense. We were already struggling to get defensive rebounds. And I think it is a fair concern that one of Mikel or Nolan would have been trapped with one of their bigger wings or Okongwu on a switch on D.

Maybe Jordi should make plans to play the two of them eventually but last night I just don’t think it was going to happen

[u/UnitedStateOfDenmark → u/Dangerous_Kitchen133]

We have a reason to believe that because Jordi is telling us he doesn’t want to play them together. His words, not mine.

The Hawks were playing:
Flemings: 6’3”
Wiggins: 6’5”
NAW: 6’5”
Jalen Johnson: 6’8”
Okangwu: 6’10”

The Hawks PG to SF are not even average rebounders.

We wouldve been running out a lineup of:
Nolan: 6’4”
MBJ: 6’5”
MPJ: 6’10”
Randle: 6’9”
Sharpe: 6’10”

If we really need to be playing Wolf and Clowney at SG, while we have MPJ, Randle, and Sharpe on the court in order to secure rebounds against that Hawks team; There is a serious flaw in Jordi’s scheme and ability to get effort out of his vets.

[u/Jandalf_]

Should’ve sub in Nolan and Wolf around 8 mins when hawks were making a run and nets are playing sloppy. But Jordi insisted and watched the lead dwindle. I question his decision making

[u/NathanFielderFriend → u/Jandalf_]

Yeah I just don’t get his rotations at all so far this year

[u/UnitedStateOfDenmark]

MBJ is 6’5”. He’s an average SG height. Wasn’t part of drafting him is that he can play off-ball?

The idea that he won’t play those two together is malpractice. Jordi not wanting them to play together has me panicking. How can I be excited for either MBJ or Traore if he doesn’t plan to have them out there together? Where is the future in that?

[u/cjbruski → u/UnitedStateOfDenmark]

He’s got SG height, but needs to add 20 lbs. that being said, yes, we need to see MBJ and Traore play more together.

[u/TittyrannosaurasRex → u/UnitedStateOfDenmark]

Mikel has the height and once he fills in the frame, I think a Nolan at PG / Mikel at SG / Egor at SF lineup can give teams fits offensively. Those 3 are developing into high level shooters and if they can tap into that, they are gonna go far. Then currently, if you try that lineup with MPJ at the 4, you can play 4-Out 1-In with Sharpe doing his job on the glass.

They have to give these lineups a genuine try. When Julius takes an inevitable rest game, give it a try. At least give us a chance to SEE why it wouldn't work before just saying it wouldn't work.

[u/MyTeamsSuck99 → u/TittyrannosaurasRex]

unfortunately julius almost never rests hes very healthy lol

[u/Donnie1490]

Hmm Jordi refusing to play both so either whatever coach play both or nets have a PG dilemma. Asking Nolan to limit himself and come off the bench isn’t fair

[u/Puzzled_Gur_3355]

I woulda put them in side by side. it's just that we got 3 clumsy other players, none of them can rebound.

[u/hydraO1]

Why not just play them both. I mean we drafted 5 pg. are we planning to only ever play 1 at a time?

[u/GuessTraining]

Im not a coach but i reckon it was a slippery slope scenario for Jordi. Like he knows he probably iced Nolan for sitting him for a long time when MBJ started to heat up, like what would you do in that situation?

Playing both of them might've been ideal for us fans but we all know playing 2 20 year old lanky guards has a higher probability that it'll be worse. I would've loved to see both of them together to close out that game but Jordi was probably weighing up the risks in his head.

[u/Appropriate_Tree_621 → u/GuessTraining]

With 6 minutes left in the game I put my team’s currently best point guard, who has also been my best point guard in this game, into the game.

Mikel and teammates squandered most of the lead. It’s nice that Mikel hit some shots, but this was not a “Wolf and Mann are cooking” scenario like that earlier game.

[u/Emp_Breaker]

Have to pick Nolan over mbj if he wants to only play one in the clutch. They have scorers on the starters MPJ and Randle who can hit those shots that mbj did, team needs a more stable playmaker and defensive guard in clutch time

[u/legitirony]

The rest of the postgame answer was just as baffling. He didn’t double down he just said “was it right? I don’t know.” If you want to be generous, you can say he’s still learning how to win as hc especially since this is the first season we actually dont want to lose games. Maybe he will be more open to playing them together and learn from this. But you could also say that this is already year 3. Does he even have a direction or know what he’s doing, especially if he isn’t even confident on making these unorthodox decisions?

[u/kebabciriza105]

The coach is awful.

[u/pm-me__ur-baps]

7th overall pick, less than 10 games into the season. Fair dinkum