The Brooklyn Nets are getting bigger without getting slower. At least that’s how it appears Sean Marks and Jordi Fernández will build in Brooklyn.
Say it with us: No more small ball!
The Nets have spent the past year finding and adding players who can handle the rock, shoot the three, pass and create from “positions” that traditionally haven’t demanded all of those skills. They believe that maintaining size — and versatility — without sacrificing some skill or athleticism can give them an advantage.
At Media Day, Fernándezoffered a glimpse into how that could look with Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Dëmin in the backcourt this season:
“You guys know that I don’t like to give you my secrets, but I’m pretty sure we’ll see that,” the third year coach said when asked if the two high picks will be starting together. “Going back to the skill set, right? Like, you know, the ability to shoot from both of them, real ability to create, and the positional size… They have been brought here for a reason.”
Surrounding those two ball-handlers, Brooklyn’s roster construction shows a clear prioritization of positional size, versatility, skill … and quick decision-making. Emphasis on quick decision-making. We constantly circle back to this quote from Sean Marks in June 2025:
“It’s 0.5-second basketball, you catch and make a decision. You don’t hold the ball… It’s also where the NBA is going: guys who can play multiple positions, guard multiple positions, and make it hard on the defense,” said the Nets GM.
On the cloudy Monday in Brooklyn, NetsDaily’s Lucas Kaplan asked Marks if Brooklyn’s positional size represented an organizational shift, a goal shift, or simply a case of the players fitting a certain type of mold.
“It’s a combination of all the above,” answered Marks.
“What becomes available, where you’re picking in the draft and so forth, I do think positional size is a factor we look at. Jordi and I are hand-in-hand in that when we discuss who we want to bring in, and what position, and what needs we look for. Sometimes size can make up for some other deficiencies. It’s certainly a factor.”
What’s certain, though, is that the Nets roster for 2026-27 is historically big. At 6’4” in bare feet, Keon Ellis and Nolan Traore are the only players players under 6’6”. The roster also features 13 players, out of the 20 in camp, who top out at more than 6’8”.
Thus, the franchise have a pretty specific idea of the type of player they want. And he and Jordi are “hand-in-hand” on the plan, Marks emphasized. Positional size is the starting point, and Fernández was already a couple steps ahead of the game when he said this in over a year ago:
“Positional size is very important and you guys can see here with your eye test,” Fernándeztold the New York Daily News in July 2025. “I would play these guys almost 1 through 4, 1 through 5. So that’s a good thing for us. You’ll see length, athleticism, and we’ll keep working on that physicality and communication.”
Brooklyn isn’t collecting tall players for the sake of being tall. It’s giving more players responsibilities that traditionally belonged to a specific position. More versatility. So, it doesn’t necessarily make it “easy” for defenses to adjust. There is an obvious drawback to building around size: size alone doesn’t create an offense. Players need to turn into stars.
Ultimately, everyone has to be able to create with the ball in and out of their hands if they’re operating in this type of system. Moving the ball now bec0mes more important than the tyranny of 1 through 5.
The importance of Egor Dëmin
The 6’9” sophomore has the physical profile of a wing but the instincts of a lead ball handler. He probably isn’t going to be handling the rock every single possession, but the possession will begin in his hands. Vision — and setting players up for the best look possible — is going to become the identity of the Nets. Fernández has already pointed to the way his size and passing can influence the team’s pace.
“His positional size and his playmaking,” Fernándezsaid in July 2025 about what excited him most about his first lottery pick. “It’s very important that we help each other and we give each other the best shot possible, and we believe that he can do it. Whether playing pick-and-roll or simply making the right play. That’s who he is, and if you watch him play and you get to know him, you can see that right away.”
Dëmin isn’t the only example.
Brown Jr., Nolan Traoré, and Ben Saraf all bring different versions of the same concept — players who can initiate, create or make plays without necessarily fitting the traditional profile of a point guard. Danny Wolf offers it from an entirely different place on the floor, with the challenge now being how quickly his skill set translates to the NBA.
A D’Antoni Connection… and a Euro one
It’s hard not to think about former Nets assistant and Hall-of-Fame head coach Mike D’Antoni when hearing Fernández speak about playing his guys “one through four, one through five.”
Speaking with Eric Jay Santos of Sports Illustrated, D’Antoni outlined the core philosophy behind continuous, ball-movement offenses:
“You set up a system where the ball movement and the opposing defense will lead to the option… Everybody’s the No. 1 option. Everybody has the ability to be able to score, pass, and move. That’s when it’s the best. When you single out a person and it’s constantly them, it gets kind of bogged down. It’s easier for the opposing defense to load up.”
The Nets aren’t recreating D’Antoni’s Seven Seconds or Less Suns. But some of the underlying ideas are familiar, and D’Antoni had already begun testing versions of that philosophy in Italy more than two decades ago.
“I was just trying to maximize the point guard, trying to maximize spacing, use the three. And I just went with it. You tweak it every year, you do a little bit different. You have different personnel. But the basics were there. It started in Italy and I just kind of ran with it,” D’Antoni told NBA.com. “I was insecure as a coach coming back to the NBA whether it would work or not.”
That’s where the international piece comes in.
Six players on the Nets roster have significant international backgrounds, giving Fernández, a native of Spain himself, a group that has developed through basketball systems outside the traditional American college-to-NBA pipeline.
- Dëmin, born and raised in Russia, developed through Real Madrid’s famous youth academy before playing at BYU.
- Nolan Traoré came through France’s famed INSEP developmental system and LNB Pro A.
- Ben Saraf, born and raised in Israel, was an MVP at the FIBA U18 European Championship.
- Danny Wolf is a 7-foot hybrid big with dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, having played FIBA ball with Israel’s youth national team.
- The team also added Moritz Wagner, a 2023 FIBA World Cup gold medalist with Germany who brings physicality and versatility to Brooklyn.
- Finally, there’s Josh Minott, an explosive 6’8” forward who represents the Jamaican national team internationally.
Before taking over in Brooklyn, Fernández built his reputation in international basketball, most notably leading Canada to a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Before that, he was an assistant coach of the Nigerian national team under Mike Brown. That Canadian roster also reflected the philosophy: only one player stood shorter than 6’5” on that Fernandez squad as well — 6’4” Andrew Nembhard.
Fernández understands the international game, but he also understands that international experience alone doesn’t guarantee NBA success.
At Media Day, the Nets coach was asked whether this strategy inherently favors the European developmental pipelines.
“I would not say it favors Europeans, it just tells you how, you know, [how] global this league is, just finding talent everywhere in the world… You got to come here and then you got to prove that you can play. With our international players, obviously we don’t see passports, and our team we see great players with a possibility to develop and so forth.”
… But there is an adjustment which is any job requires time.
“I think we have all been brought here for a reason. You can bring your talents, but at the same time you have to adjust. You have to adjust to a league, you have to adjust to a culture, you have to adjust to many other things. I think that, you know, right now you look at the NBA and, you know, that international power part may be a little loud, but you still got to go through the steps. And once again, I just see good players out there.”
The NBA’s talent pool has never been more global than it is now with 135 players from 43 countries last year, but where those players came from matters less than what they can do. Brooklyn wants players who can handle, pass, shoot, defend and make decisions without being confined to one position.
The blueprint isn’t a secret
Marks has talked about positional size. Fernández has talked about playing players almost “1 through 4, 1 through 5.” Now the roster is starting to reflect it. The Nets want to put five of their best players on the court, with each capable of doing enough different things that the defense can’t easily predict where the advantage is coming from or where the ball will move next.
Mike D’Antoni helped push the league toward five skilled players who could stretch the floor and make decisions. Fernández and Marks appear to be betting on the next step.
We’ll see if it works.
