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Jordi Fernandez has told the Brooklyn Nets to let it fly from three this season. His players have listened. The Nets' first made three of Friday's Minnesota Timberwolves matchup was their 1,090th of the season, a new single-season franchise record.
Brooklyn has attempted 39.5 threes per game this season, the eighth-most in the NBA. Fernandez would like that number to be even higher.
“They literally are just shoot, shoot, shoot. They don’t care. Sometimes I’m like fighting with him like, ‘I don’t think that’s a good shot.’ But they’re like, ‘Man, shoot it! We don’t care! Just shoot it!’” Ziaire Williams said of the coaching staff's message earlier this season. “But it’s a blessing. I’d rather have a coach tell me to shoot the bad ones than have a coach that’s like, ‘Uh, don’t shoot that one.’ It’s the most free I’ve felt in a real long time, honestly. Just being out there, not thinking, and just letting the instincts come into play.”
As is the case for much of the NBA, the three-point shot will be central to Brooklyn's offense moving forward.
Nets set single-season three-point record in first season under Jordi Fernandez
Fernandez feels the Nets have played their best basketball when his players have bought into his three-point message.
“We get in trouble when we play too slow or when we turn it over and we pass [up] shots… I want to see [us attempt] 45-plus threes many, many [more] times, hopefully every game,” the coach said earlier this season.
Fernandez and general manager Sean Marks have said they are “looking for the next Nets” as they begin their rebuild. Finding capable three-point shooters will be high on their priority list as they fill out Brooklyn's roster.
“Coach [Fernandez] is very loud about what he wants: shoot threes, play a lot of defense,” Dariq Whitehead said. “He wants 50, 55 threes a game. So for me, when I hear that, any shot is a good shot, and I’m gonna take it.”
