Brooklyn Nets GM Breaks Down Partnership With Head Coach Jordi Fernández

Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks broke down his relationship with head coach Jordi Fernández in the team’s introductory press conference for its new rookies following the 2025 NBA Draft.

“The relationship is vital,” he said. “It’s a clear partnership between not only Jordi and myself, but with the front office and Jordi’s entire coaching staff. 
We both need to feel very strong[ly] that whoever we draft that night or whoever we bring into our program with us through free agency or trade can fit — and why do they fit, and how do they fit within, not only Jordi’s system, but do we see an upside? Do we see a versatile player that we can help develop? And we're trying to predict three, four, five, you know, six years down the line.”

The Nets made NBA history in the 2025 draft. Brooklyn was the first team ever to select five first-rounders.

“I think throughout the entire draft process, having the coaches involved in this is maybe somewhat unique, but we really value their opinion,” Marks added. “That's why they’re available and they're included in all of their draft workouts that they participated in, and [...] we asked their opinions, and we [gave] them the room and we [fought] it out and battle[d].”

The Nets selected Egor Dëmin at No. 8, Nolan Traoré at No. 19, Drake Powell at No. 22, Ben Saraf at No. 26 and Danny Wolf at No. 27. Dëmin, Saraf and Wolf signed multi-year contracts on July 3. Traoré’s signing was made official on July 4. Brooklyn was waiting for a letter of clearance from FIBA to complete that move, seeing as how the French point guard was previously playing for Saint-Quentin.

Marks expounded on how the Nets’ coaches were involved during the draft process: “I want to hear from them — they're the ones up in close and they're feeling these guys on the court —
so I think that’s really important, and I love to see that buy-in, and I think to be quite frank, that's where player development starts: when the coaching staff is excited about [the] guys you draft.” 

Fernández will be entering his second season as Brooklyn’s head coach with an incredibly young squad. The 42-year-old finished 26-56 in his first season as Brooklyn's bench boss. Marks added that the expectations for Fernández were “the same as always,” meaning to “go out and compete.” 

“We don't put a limit on ‘Don't do this, and hopefully, you don't win this amount of games’ or any of that, that's never crossed our lips here,” Marks said. ”It is go compete, and do the borough proud. And I think that's what this group has done. It's certainly what Jordi has done, and when your leader voices that in timeouts and voices that in the locker room, that speaks volumes, and that's why people want to play for him, and that's why people are excited to have their players here and working with this coach and this coaching staff.”