Brooklyn Nets HC Jordi Fernández Impressed by Drew Timme's Debut

Head coach Jordi Fernández highlighted how he wants his Brooklyn Nets team to “play the right way” following a 32-point loss to the LA Clippers.

“We won the first quarter, we won the fourth quarter, we lost the second and third [...] by 37, so who do you want to be?” Fernández said after the game. “It [comes] down to, we have high expectations on how we want to do things and how we want to compete.”

The Nets only scored 100 points to the Clippers’ 132. Keon Johnson led the team in scoring with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting, but he was a -28 for the night. Cam Johnson and debuting big Drew Timme both pitched in with 11 points.

Timme, who was signed to a two-year contract on the morning of the game, also paced Brooklyn in minutes with a team-high 24:54. He had 10 rebounds in addition to going 4-for-6 from the field, wrapping up his Nets debut with a double-double. Recent G League player and current two-way Tyson Etienne also scored his first points in a Brooklyn uniform, finishing with eight points in a hair under 10 minutes.

“Congratulations to Drew and Tyson with their first points in the NBA, which is pretty awesome, but we gotta be better,” Fernández said.

D'Lo with a fantastic find, leading to Drew Timme's first NBA points: pic.twitter.com/THwRBLK4ZU
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) March 29, 2025

The Brooklyn head coach emphasized that he liked Timme’s “feel” and how his production has translated through college and the G League so far. Fernández believes that the 24-year-old could potentially be an example of a dominant college player who proves people wrong about not making the step up to the NBA level.

“Never rushed, uses his body, like he can find his teammates, he can score, he can rebound,” Fernández said. “Very impressed with him, very happy for him because he deserves it, and that to me can be an example of one of those guys that it's like, ‘oh, but at this level…’ and well, he still does it.”

With Etienne or someone like Maxwell Lewis, the Nets’ bench boss added that the players who came in at the end of the game took advantage of their minutes by doing a “really, really good job [...] to come in and compete.” Overall, Fernández is looking for more from his team as the end of the NBA regular season approaches.

He said: “I gotta find a way to engage our players better to play the right way, and that's what we've done so far is whether we win or lose, you play the right way, with the right intentions. That gives yourself a chance, so uh continues, and now the most important game is the next game. and it's tomorrow. We wanna be better.”

The Nets’ next game is on Saturday night — the second night of a back-to-back featuring a trip to DC to face the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are 16-57 this season. For Brooklyn fans concerned about draft standings, Tankathon currently projects Washington to pick at No. 2.

“It’s my responsibility to engage them, and if they don’t, it's on me - so, whatever they're thinking, I don't care,” Fernández said. “I need them to focus on the next game, and the next game is the most important thing and playing the right way for the club, playing the right way to give ourselves a chance.”