Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernández, GM Sean Marks Break Down 2025 NBA Draft

Brooklyn Nets head coach Jordi Fernández and general manager Sean Marks welcomed the team’s five first-rounders on Tuesday morning. Fernández touched on how his new rookies would get on the court in year one.

“It’s going to be my decision to go and put five guys on the court and have most likely a 10-man rotation, and go through the process,” he said. “Player development is gonna be important. We've been very diligent. The coaching staff has done a great job making our guys work, and those guys have improved, and we believe they'll do the same thing.” 

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 in the 2025 NBA Draft. Brooklyn was the first team in league history to draft five players in the first round.

Fernández added: “I'm gonna focus on the team, and what we're trying to build as a group. These young men are part of our family now, and they're going to have to earn [playing time], and I think that's how it should be.”

Marks shed light on his thought process behind the draft. He also explained that he didn’t want to limit place any positional limits on Brooklyn’s first-year players.

“It's obviously best available — that factors in — but it’s also the scouting work that we've done on these guys throughout this, and not just this year, but leading up to this year would lead us to believe it's a versatile class,” Marks said. “They can play multiple positions, multiple ball handlers. [...] You've heard all the cliches, positionless basketball, and so forth, but you want high IQ guys, that's what we've got here. You want versatile guys, that's what we've got here.” 

Part of the Nets’ predraft process was covered in the team’s ‘SCOUT’ docuseries. Marks further praised Fernández’s coaching staff.

“It gets back to an exciting group out there and not limiting them on how they can play,” Marks said. “We saw attributes throughout the year of how each one of these played individually. Our development staff’s proven that they've done a great job, and I think that gives me utmost confidence in developing these five guys. And if I don't think we had that confidence in our stuff, we probably wouldn't have done it. The sky's the limit for all of them.” 

Brooklyn’s rookies will make their Las Vegas Summer League debuts on July 10 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. NBA TV recently projected the Nets’ regular season starting lineup.

Fernández said: “They'll put the work in. They've already shown who they are. That's why we drafted them and they're [a] part of this amazing journey.”