LAS VEGAS — The Nets’ summer league squad has a different roster and different coach than their regular-season team in Brooklyn will.
But their ethos?
Their foundation?
That should be the same — and a window into how the new-look rebuilding Nets are going to play.
Or at least try to.
It makes sense.
New coach Jordi Fernandez — still serving as head coach of Team Canada — has handed the Las Vegas Summer League reins to assistant Steve Hetzel.
Fernandez was Hetzel’s assistant with the G-League Canton Charge, and then his successor.
Now their roles are reserved, but their philosophy is the same.
“From our standpoint, as a group, as a coaching staff from Jordi and also the front office, we don’t see our style of play changing necessarily with our roster compared to the summer league,” Hetzel said. “And that’s the importance of summer league is to set a foundation of how we want to play.
“So we want our Brooklyn Nets team to be disruptive, physical and help, and we want to play fast and share the ball. So the messaging, it will just carry over into that team. And so we believe that this simplistic approach, but if we hang our hat on those things, that’s what we believe successful teams do.”
The Nets traded away Mikal Bridges and are going to be going through a rebuilding process that most onlookers project will end in the 20-win area.
Victories will be hard to come by, and they’ll need to be earned on the defensive end.
“We want to be disruptive defensively. We want to be physical and we want to be disruptive, that’s the No. 1 thing that I want to see,” Hetzel said. “I want to see ball pressure, I want to see it be disruptive, get deflections, and I want them to play for each other on both ends of the floor. I want them to be in the proper help positions.
“I want them to share the ball. I want them to apply what we think is our shot spectrum. So, get the ball to the paint, kick out, work for the best shot and not the first shot. That’s the goal, is to play well within what we believe playing well is, and that’s being physical and disruptive defensively, helping on defense, moving the ball, touching the paint.”
The beginnings of that will be instilled here in Las Vegas.
Unsurprisingly, the six players who spent time on Brooklyn’s roster last season — draft picks Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead and Jalen Wilson, along with Jaylen Marton, Jacob Gilyard and Keon Johnson — have been among the most impressive.
Brooklyn tips off summer league play Friday against the Pacers in Cox Pavilion (8 p.m., NBA TV).
The Long Island Nets named Matt MacDonald as the fourth GM in franchise history.
Cam Thomas threw out the first pitch at Citi Field before the Mets’ 7-0 win over the Nationals on Thursday.