C.J. Holmes: By extending Jordi Fernández, Sean Marks raised the stakes on himself

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NEW YORK — Sean Marks has asked a lot of Brooklyn. He’s asked it to live with the losses, to stare at the standings without flinching and to trust that all the patience, all the picks and all the flexibility were building toward something better.

That’s an easier sell when the losing still feels like part of the setup. It gets harder when the general manager starts handing out extensions that say the setup is over and the next phase is supposed to begin.

That’s why the Nets’ decision to sign Jordi Fernández and his entire coaching staff to multi-year extensions says as much about Marks as it does about the coach. This wasn’t just a reward for surviving two ugly seasons. It was Marks telling everyone that, as far as he’s concerned, the coaching question is settled. The staff is settled. The developmental structure is settled. From here, the scrutiny shifts back where it belongs.

That makes this both a sensible move and a risky one. The sensible part isn’t hard to see. Fernández didn’t walk into a normal NBA job in April 2024. He walked into a teardown. Soon after he arrived, Brooklyn traded Mikal Bridges, regained control of its 2025 and 2026 first-round picks from the Houston Rockets and committed itself to an organizational reset that was always going to be painful.

Over the next two seasons, Fernández went 46-118 while coaching through injuries, constant lineup changes and, this past year, the NBA’s youngest roster, half of it under 24 and featuring a league-record five first-round rookies. The record is ugly. The circumstances were, too.

Marks clearly believes Fernández and his staff handled the hard part of the job well. In the team’s announcement, he praised Fernández for building a foundation rooted in player development, competitiveness and honest communication. Teams talk about culture all the time. They don’t usually extend an entire staff after seasons of 26 and 20 wins unless they truly believe in the people doing the work.

That belief also changes the pressure on Marks. The first two years of the rebuild gave him some cover. The roster was young. The focus was development. The losses came with the territory. Brooklyn could point to growth, culture and long-term planning and have a fair reason for doing it.

Now the future Marks kept pointing to is starting to arrive. The Nets head into the May 10 lottery with a 40% chance to pick in the top three for the first time since 2010. They’re projected to have more than $30 million in cap space again this offseason. They also control 13 first-round picks and 19 second-round picks over the next seven drafts, with nine of those firsts tradable. Marks has spent years building optionality. At some point, optionality has to start resembling a contender.