Jordi Fernandez nurturing fiery Nets training camp environment

As the Nets came into Monday’s preseason home opener, their veterans have claimed, to a man, this is the toughest training camp they’ve been through. New coach Jordi Fernandez doesn’t mind taking the blame for that.But he admitted it’s basically the players clawing tooth and nail, fighting for jobs and roles that fostered that environment, not him. “You may think coaches decide that, but the reality is that players play, players practice.

The ones that are making it competitive, hard, physical and challenging are the players,” Fernandez said before Monday’s 131-92 preseason win over the Wizards.“Obviously, my demands are to work extremely hard, to be a good teammate, to build relationships, to compete, to get 1 percent better, so on and so forth.

Everyone establishes a culture, our offensive principles, defensive principles. “But the guys are buying into it, and they’re fighting for their opportunities, their spots, their roles.And that’s a good thing to see.

We saw it in Game 1.Everything that we’re doing day-to-day, then it translates on the court: That togetherness, that competitiveness, being selfless.

And at the end of the day, I like that they blamed me for camp being so hard, but I’m going to blame them for working hard and being engaged and committed to the process.” The Nets hosted a Washington team also in the early stages of a rebuild.And after some pretty competitive practices and scrimmages, they were itching to face somebody in a different jersey. “We’ve had a lot of great, healthy competition, so we’re definitely looking forward to putting on the same jersey and beating up on somebody else,” said Ziaire Williams. “It’s definitely been a grind, but we’ve definitely been getting after it, and I think it’s going to pay off, especially the way coach wants to play…I’ve never had a training camp like this, going as hard as we’re going.

It’s been a challenge, but it’s been fun,” Shake Milton ...