PHILADELPHIA — For years, the only ball movement people saw in Brooklyn was up and down, as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving dribbled it.
And that made sense, trying to ride two of history’s greatest isolation players to victory.
But both are long gone, along with their prolific scoring and any hope of Nets contention.
Now Brooklyn is rebuilding, having to get back to basics and develop good habits.
And one of the non-negotiable ones that rookie coach Jordi Fernandez has been harping on is ball movement, swinging it around.
The early returns were promising coming into Wednesday’s preseason game at Philadelphia.
“Yeah, our shot quality has been good,” Fernandez said. “And that goes with not just ball movement, but also body movement. Guys have been active. They share the ball. And the ball’s got energy. And when you pass that ball, everybody feeds out of that energy. And that’s how we’ve played very well, very fast.
“I know by possessions if you look at the number of the total possessions, we’re kind of slow; those are the raw numbers. But if you look [in the] half-court … our number of passes, our cutting is very high. So that means that we’re moving a lot. We’re sharing the basketball. So I’m happy. That creates high-quality shots. And we’ve been pretty good getting to the free-throw line. … So far, very happy with the buy-in from our guys.”
The Nets went into Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia first in the preseason in fast-break points after ranking just 21st last season.
They came in third in assist-to-turnover ratio, after being just 19th in 2023-24.
If there is a play that epitomizes the complementary basketball that Fernandez wants, it was Cam Thomas defense leading to a Dorian Finney-Smith 3-pointer in Monday’s win where all five Nets touched the ball.
“Coach wants to move the ball side to side, and that’s what we did on that play, just trying to find the best available shot. And that was one of those plays,” Finney-Smith said. “We got a dunk off a play just like that, just with everybody touching it.
“The ball gives energy, and coach talks about that. When the ball touches you, it gives you this energy. Even if you’re tired, [when] you get the ball, you get energy. So it was one of those plays. And you can see the team, they really enjoyed that play because everybody touched it. And it went in on top of that.”
Thomas has been scrutinized for inconsistent defense throughout his career, but made modest improvements last season.
And in the early stages of camp and this preseason, he looks to be taking more positive steps.
With Brooklyn leading Washington, 59-47, with 10:34 left in the third quarter on Monday, Thomas read a pass from Kyle Kuzma and picked it off.
Then on the other end, every single Net touched the ball before a perfectly executed 3-pointer.
Thomas pushed it up to Cam Johnson on the arc, and the wing passed to Ziaire Williams.
The newcomer attacked the rim and collapsed the defense, kicking out to Dennis Schroder.
But rather than taking the corner 3-pointer, the point guard quickly swung the ball to Finney-Smith for a wide-open 3-pointer — and a 15-point lead that Brooklyn just built on throughout the rest of the night.
That’s what Fernandez was hoping to see Wednesday to get looks against the 76ers, and what he’ll need to see during the season.
“The ball has energy. Everybody touches the ball. Everybody’s happier,” Fernandez said earlier in camp. “We need to share that energy. So we’ve been playing a certain way, and that way is sharing the basketball, being more unpredictable, harder to guard. Doing that through Nic [Claxton] can really help us offensively.”
